HISTORY 


OF    THE 


Battle  of  Bunker's  [Breed's]  Hill, 

On  June  17,  1775, 

FROM  AUTHENTIC    SOURCES    IN   PRINT' 
AND    MANUSCRIPT. 


BY 


GEORGE    E.  /ELLIS. 


WITH    A    MAP    OF    THE    BATTLE-GROUND. 


BOSTON: 
LOCKWOOD,    BROOKS,   AND    COMPANY. 

1S75. 


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r ', 


HISTORY 


OF   THE 


Battle  of  Bunker's  [Breed's]  Hill, 

On  June  17,  1775, 

FROM  AUTHENTIC   SOURCES   IN  PRINT 
AND    MANUSCRIPT 


BY 


GEORGE    E.    ELLIS, 
11 


WITH    A    MAP    OF   THE    BATTLE-GROUND. 


BOSTON: 

LOCKWOOD,    BROOKS,   AND    COMPANY. 

1875. 


E4S 


Copyright, 

George  E.  Ellis. 

1875. 


•  •••*••  • 
t .  •  .  «  •  •  • 
•     •  •    •    •• 


CamOriage : 
Press  of  John  Wilson  6s  Son, 


z 


THE 


BATTLE   OF    BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]    HILL. 


PREPARATIONS. 

HT*HE  reader  of  the  following  pages  is  supposed  to  be 
informed  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  and  around  Boston 
at  the  time  of  the  opening  of  hostilities  at  Lexington  and 
Concord,  between  the  provincials  and  the  royal  forces.  The 
expedition  sent  into  the  country  by  the  British  commander 
on  April  19th,  to  seize  or  destroy  the  military  supplies  which 
had  been  gathered  at  Concord,  under  the  full  prescience  that 
they  would  be  needed  in  the  final  rupture  that  could  no 
longer  be  averted,  was  but  partially  successful  in  its  objects, 
was  inglorious  in  its  whole  character  and  results  to  the  in- 
vaders, and  decisive  only  in  its  effects  upon  the  purpose  and 
resolve  of  an  outraged  people. 

The  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia  was  still  delib- 
erating, averting  a  declaration  which  would  break  the  last 
bond  of  allegiance  to  the  mother  country,  and  vainly  hoping 
still  to  settle  the  strife  by  negotiation.  Reinforcements  of 
foreign  troops  and  supplies  were  constantly  arriving  in  Bos- 
ton. Howe,  Clinton,  and  Burgoyne  came,  as  generals,  on  the 
25  th  of  May.  Bitterness,  ridicule,  and  boasting,  with  all  the 
irritating  taunts  of  a  mercenary  soldiery,  were  freely  poured 
on  the  patriots  and  on  the  "mixed  multitude"  which  com- 
posed the  germ  of  their  army  yet  to  be.  The  British  forces 
had  cooped  themselves  up  in  Boston,  and  the  provincials 
determined  that  they  should  remain  there,  with  no  mode  of 
exit  save  by  the  sea.  The  pear-shaped  peninsula,  hung  to  the 
mainland  only  by  the  stem  called  the  "  Neck,"  over  which  the 

M223918 

W0K2QJUNS4 


4  THE    BATTLE    OF    BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]    HILL. 

tide-waters  sometimes  washed,  was  equally  an  inconvenient 
position  for  crowding  regiments  in  warlike  array,  and  a  con- 
venient one  for  the  extemporized  army  which  was  about  to 
beleaguer  them  there. 

The  islands  in  the  harbor,  which  were,  for  the  most  part, 
covered  with  trees  and  growing  crops  of  hay  and  grain,  with 
horses,  sheep,  and  cattle,  were  envied  prizes  for  the  soldiers, 
who  lacked  fuel,  fodder,  and  fresh  meat.  The  daring  enter- 
prise of  those  who  lived  in  the  settlements  near  on  the  main- 
land, attempting  the  ventures  by  night,  or  in  the  broad  light 
of  day,  had  stripped  these  islands  of  their  precious  wealth, 
much  to  the  chagrin  of  the  invaders.  The  light-house  in  the 
harbor  was  afterwards  burned.  In  the  skirmishes  brought  on 
by  these  exciting  but  perilous  feats,  especially  in  that  attend- 
ing the  successful  removal  of  stock  and  hay  on  Noddle's 
Island,  now  East  Boston,  and  on  Hog  Island,  the  provincials 
obtained  some  valuable  implements  and  muniments,  especially 
four  4-pounders  and  twelve  swivels.  And  from  this  begin- 
ning, all  through  the  seven  years  of  war  that  followed,  the 
rebels  were  largely  indebted  for  their  weapons  and  accoutre- 
ments, and  much  other  material  of  prime  necessity  and  value 
to  them,  to  their  raids  and  privateering  successes  against  the 
enemy. 

The  town  of  Charlestown,  which  lay  under  the  enemy's 
guns,  had  contained  a  population  of  between  two  and  three 
thousand.  The  interruption  of  all  the  employments  of  peace, 
and  the  proximity  of  danger,  had  brought  poverty  and  suffer- 
ing upon  the  people.  They  had  been  steadily  leaving  the 
town,  with  such  of  their  effects  as  they  could  carry  with  them. 
It  proved  to  be  well  for  them  that  they  had  acted  upon  the 
warning.  It  would  seem  that  there  were  less  than  two  hun- 
dred of  its  inhabitants  remaining  in  it  at  the  time  of  the  battle, 
when  the  flames  kindled  by  the  enemy  and  bombs  from  a 
battery  on  Copp's  Hill  laid  it  in  ashes. 

On  the  third  day  after  the  affair  at  Concord,  the  Provincial 
Congress  again  assembled,  voted  to  raise  at  once  13,000  men, 


THE   PROVINCIAL  ARMY.  5 

to  rally  at  Cambridge  and  the  neighborhood,  and  asked  aid 
from  the  other  provinces,  to  which  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
and  New  Hampshire  responded.  The  forts,  magazines,  and 
arsenals,  such  as  they  then  were,  were  secured  for  the  coun- 
try. Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  title  of  enemies  became  the 
synonyme  of  the  English,  military  or  civil,  and  of  those  of 
tory  proclivities  who  sympathized  with  them.  General  Gage, 
the  commander,  was  denounced  as  the  agent  of  tyranny  and 
oppression.  An  account  of  the  affair  on  April  19th  was  sent 
to  England,  with  an  address  closing  with  the  words,  "  Appeal- 
ing to  Heaven  for  the  justice  of  our  cause,  we  determine  to 
die  or  be  free." 

By  advice  received  from  Lord  Dartmouth,  the  head  of  the 
War  Department,  General  Gage  issued  a  proclamation  on  the 
1 2th  of  June,  in  which  he  declared  the  discontents  to  be  in  a 
state  of  rebellion,  offered  a  full  pardon  to  all,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams,  who  would  lay  down 
their  arms  and  bow  to  his  authority,  and  announced  that  mar- 
tial law  was  now  in  force. 

This  proclamation,  issued  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  was 
to  be  illustrated  by  a  fearful  commentary  before  another  Sun- 
day came. 

THE   PROVINCIAL    ARMY. 

Of  the  15,000  men  then  gathered,  by  the  cry  of  war,  at 
Cambridge  and  Roxbury,  all  virtually,  but  not  by  formal 
investment,  under  the  command  of  General  Ward,  nearly 
10,000  belonged  to  Massachusetts,  and  the  remainder  to  New 
Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut.  They  have  been 
designated  since,  at  various  times  and  by  different  writers, 
under  the  extreme  contrast  of  terms,  as  an  "  organized  army," 
and  a  "  mob."  Either  of  these  terms  would  be  equally  inap- 
propriate. The  circumstances  under  which  the  men  who 
were  to  constitute  our  army  were  drawn  together,  and  the 
guise  in  which  they  came,  without  other  concert  or  preparation 
than  a  wide-spread  sense  that  almost  any  day  with  its  alarm 


6  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 

and  outrage  might  summon  them  from  field,  barn,  and  work- 
shop, will  best  define  and  describe  them  as  they  present 
themselves  before  us  now.  The  hardships  they  were  to  bear 
and  the  services  they  were  to  perform  may  secure  to  them  as 
rightful  a  claim  to  be  called  soldiers  as  if  they  had  been  drilled 
in  Pickering  or  Steuben's  manual,  and  had  been  accoutred 
and  armed  with  all  the  skill  of  a  contractor  and  from  all  the 
resources  of  an  arsenal.  Our  troops  were  "  minute-men " 
extemporized  into  fragmentary  companies  and  skeleton  regi- 
ments. The  officers,  chosen  on  the  village-green  or  in  its 
public-house,  paying  for  the  honor  by  a  treat,  or  perhaps 
because  they  kept  the  premises  where  the  treat  could  be  most 
conveniently  furnished,  were  not  commissioned  or  ranked 
as  the  leaders  of  an  army  for  campaign  service.  The  yeo- 
men of  town  and  village  had  not  come  together  at  the  sum- 
mons of  a  commander-in-chief  through  adjutant,  herald,  or 
advertisement.  They  came  unbidden',  at  an  alarm  from  the 
bell  on  their  meeting-house,  or  from  a  post-rider,  or  from  the 
telegrams  transmitted  by  tongue  and  ear.  And  they  came 
for  what  they  were  and  as  they  were,  with  their  light  summer 
clothing,  in  shirt  and  frock  and  apron  ;  with  what  was  left 
from  their  last  meals  in  their  pantries  packed  with  a  few 
"  notions  "  in  sack  or  pillow-case,  and  with  the  ducking-guns, 
fowling-pieces,  or  shaky  muskets  used  in  old  times  against  the 
vermin  and  game  in  the  woods  and  the  Indian  skulking  in 
the  thicket.  And  for  the  most  part  they  were  as  free  to  go 
away  as  they  had  been  to  come.  They  were  enlisted  after  a 
fashion,  some  prime  conditions  of  which  were  their  own  con- 
venience or  pleasure.  They  might  stay,  as  some  of  them 
expressed  it,  "  for  a  spell,  to  see  what  was  going  on  in  camp," 
or  they  might  plead  the  state  of  their  farms,  or  the  condition 
of  their  families,  as  a  reason  —  not  an  excuse  —  for  going  home, 
with  the  promise  of  a  return  better  prepared  for  what  might 
be  wanted  of  them.  Such  of  them  as  came  from  the  sea- 
board might  bring  with  them  old  sails  for  tents,  while  the 
midsummer  days  made  it  scarcely  a  hardship  to  many  to 


THE    PROVINCIAL   ARMY.  7 

have  only  the  heavens  for  a  roof.  Generally  their  towns 
were  expected  to  keep  them  supplied  with  food. 

The  men  who  made  the  centre  and  the  flanks  of  the  camp 
at  Cambridge  constituted  an  irregular  and  undisciplined  as- 
semblage, with  the  spirit  and  intent  of  a  military  host,  but 
not  yet  organized  into  an  army.  They  were  without  accou- 
trements or  uniform,  with  no  commissary,  no  military  chest, 
no  hospitals,  no  roll-call,  no  camp  routine.  The  Provincial 
Congress  had  the  matter  of  organization  under  debate  two 
days  before  the  battle  in  Charlestown,  and  had  appointed  a 
committee  "to  consider  the  claims  and  pretensions  of  the 
colonels."  Recruits  and  stragglers  were  continually  coming  in ; 
and  many  groupings  on  the  scene  might  have  suggested  a 
picnic,  had  such  a  thing  then  been  known,  for  there  were  not 
wanting  mothers,  daughters,  and  sisters,  as  lookers-on  among 
them.  A  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  local  and  tradi- 
tional usages  of  Massachusetts  is  illustrated  in  the  fact  that 
of  the  company  of  minute-men  in  Danvers,  Asa  Putnam,  a 
deacon  of  the  church,  was  chosen  captain,  and  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Wadsworth,  the  pastor,  his  lieutenant. 

The  forces  then  mustered  at  Cambridge  as  a  central  camp, 
and,  stretching  from  the  left  at  Chelsea  almost  round  to  Dor- 
chester on  the  right,  for  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  circle, 
were  indeed  not  organized,  nor  yet  had  they  any  character- 
istic of  a  mere  mob.  They  combined  in  fact  four  independent 
armies,  united  in  resistance  to  a  foreign  enemy.  They  cer- 
tainly did  not  constitute  a  national  army,  for  there  was  as 
yet  no  nation  to  adopt,  maintain,  and  command  them.  They 
were  not  under  the  authority  of  the  Continental  Congress,  for 
the  authority  of  that  Congress  was  not  as  yet  acknowledged, 
nor  had  that  Congress .  as  yet  recognized  those  forces,  nor 
decided  that  it  meant  to  come  to  the  fight,  and  so  would  have 
need  of  an  army.  General  Ward  was  in  command  of  the 
Massachusetts  soldiers.  The  New  Hampshire  regiments  had 
been  put  temporarily,  and  for  the  occasion,  under  his  orders. 
The  soldiers  coming  with  their  officers  from  Connecticut  and 


8  THE    BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]    HILL. 

Rhode  Island  were  not  under  the  command  of  Ward,  save  as 
the  friendly  purpose  which  led  them  to  volunteer  their  arms 
in  defence'  of  a  sister  colony,  would  be  accompanied  by  the 
courtesy  that  would  make  them  subordinate  allies.  Each  of 
the  Provinces  had  raised,  commissioned,  and  assumed  the  sup- 
ply of  its  respective  forces,  holding  them  subject  to  their 
several  orders.  After  the  battle  in  Charlestown,  the  Com- 
mittee of  War  in  Connecticut  ordered  their  generals,  Spencer 
and  Putnam,  while  they  were  on  the  territory  of  this  Province, 
to  regard  General  Ward  as  the  commander-in-chief,  and  sug- 
gested to  Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire  to  issue  the 
same  instructions  to  their  soldiers. 

These  provincial  troops  also  were  respectively  almost  as 
loosely  organized  and  officered  as  was  the  combined  army 
which  they  helped  to  constitute.  Their  field-officers  held 
their  places  at  the  favor  of  the  privates,  and  were  liable  to  be 
superseded  or  disobeyed ;  while  even  after  Washington  took 
the  command  of  the  adopted  army,  he  was  constantly  annoyed 
and  provoked  by  the  obstinate  resolution  of  the  soldiers  to 
assign  place  and  rank  according  to  their  own  inclinations  and 
partialities. 

It  is  evident  that  forces  composed  of  such  elements,  drawn 
together  by  the  excitement  of  the  hour,  and  subject  at  any 
time  to  discord  and  disintegration,  could  act  in  concert  only 
by  yielding  themselves  to  the  influence  of  the  spirit  which 
had  summoned  them  from  farm  and  workshop  at  the  busiest 
season  of  the  year,  when  each  of  them  was  most  needed  at 
home.  Yet  many  of  those  provincial  soldiers,  though  undis- 
ciplined by  any  thing  like  regular  service,  were  by  no  means 
unused  to  the  severities  and  exactions  of  a  military  life,  hav- 
ing had  experience  in  the  Indian  and  French  wars.  They 
had  learned,  above  all  the  other  accomplishments  of  their  pro- 
fession, the  art  of  covering  themselves,  especially  their  legs, 
behind  an  earthen  screen,  the  butt  of  a  tree,  a  thicket  of 
bushes,  or  a  stone  wall. 

One  regiment  of  artillery,  with  nine  field-pieces,  had  been 


THE    PROVINCIAL    ARMY.  9 

raised  in  Massachusetts,  and  put  under  command  of  the 
famous  engineer,  Colonel  Gridley.  But  this  was  not  yet  full 
nor  thoroughly  organized.  A  self-constituted  Provincial  Con- 
gress discharged  the  legislative  functions,  and  a  Committee  of 
Safety,  elected  by  that  congress,  filled  the  executive  place  of 
Governor  and  Council,  confining  its  directions  chiefly  to 
military  affairs.  There  was  also  a  Council  of  War,  with  an 
undefined  range  as  to  advice  and  authority,  sometimes  mis- 
chievously interfering  with  or  confusing  or  crossing  the 
arrangements,  advice,  and  measures  of  the  Committee. 

General  Artemas  Ward  was  a  conscientious  and  judicious 
patriot.  In  the  French  war  he  had  earned  some  military 
experience  and  fame.'  He  was  in  the  expedition  under  Gen- 
eral Abercrombie,  and  returned  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
colonel.  In  his  civil  and  representative  offices  he  had  warmly 
espoused  the  cause  of  his  country.  On  October  27,  1774,  the 
Provincial  Congress,  in  which  he  was  a  delegate,  appointed 
him  a  general  officer,  and  on  May  19  following,  Commander- 
in-chief.  As  such  he  served  at  Cambridge  till  the  arrival  of 
Washington.  On  the  very  day  of  the  battle  in  Charlestown, 
when  the  great  chieftain  was  selected  for  his  high  service, 
Ward  was  chosen  by  the  Continental  Congress  as  its  first 
major-general.  Though  he  was  only  in  his  forty-eighth  year 
when  he  was  burdened  with  the  responsibility  of  the  opening 
warfare,  his  body  was  infirm  from  disease  and  exposure. 

Lieutenant-General  Thomas,  two  years  the  senior  of  Ward, 
was  second*  in  command.  He  was  distinguished  for  talents, 
patriotism,  and  military  qualities.  He  accepted  his  commis- 
sion on  May  27.  During  the  siege  of  Boston,  that  followed 
the  battle  in  Charlestown,  he  commanded  a  brigade  at  Rox- 
bury,  in  proximity  to  the  British  lines.  He  afterwards  took 
possession  of  and  intrenched  Dorchester  Heights,  which  bore 
a  similar  relation  and  position  to  Boston  on  the  south  as  did 
those  of  Charlestown  on  the  north,  and  he  was  thus  the 
instrument  of  driving  the  British  soldiers  from  the  town.  He 
died  in  May,  1776,  while  in  command  in  Canada. 


IO  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 

General  Seth  Pomeroy,  likewise  famous  in  the  border  wars, 
continued  to  serve  under  the  appointment  of  the  Provincial 
Congress. 

General  Israel  Putnam  preceded  his  Connecticut  troops  in 
hurrying  to  the  scene  of  war  on  the  news  of  the  affair  at  Lex- 
ington and  Concord.  His  men  soon  followed  him,  with  like 
enthusiasm.  The  New  Hampshire  troops,  on  their  arrival  at 
Medford,  made  choice  of  Colonel  John  Stark  as  their  leader. 
Colonel  Nathaniel  Greene  commanded  a  regiment  from  Rhode 
Island. 

THE   SCENE  AND    ITS   SURROUNDINGS. 

The  steady  processes  and  transformations  by  which  time, 
expansive  growth,  the  necessities  of  crowded  human  life, 
enterprise,  and  improvement  have  changed  the  natural  feat- 
ures of  the  scene  now  to  be  recalled,  may  require  some  effort 
from  those  now  on  the  stage  to  reproduce  its  distinctive 
features.  On  no  spot  of  this  earth  have  such  processes 
wrought  more  effectually  than  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bos- 
ton. The  visitor  to  the  field  of  Waterloo  is  baffled  in  his 
efforts  to  trace  the  manoeuvres  of  its  great  day,  even  by  so 
slight  a  change  in  its  natural  features  as  the  removal  of  a 
ridge  of  earth  to  build  the  mound  on  which  rests  the  memo- 
rial of  the  Belgic  lion.  But  the  levelling  of  hill-tops,  the 
narrowing  of  river-courses  by  piers  and  wharves,  the  exten- 
sion of  bridges,  the  filling  in  of  thousands  of  acres  of  irri- 
gated flats,  and  the  thick  planting  of  dwellings,  marts  of 
trade,  and  manufactories,  have  strangely  transformed  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  storied  summit.  Some  thirty  years  ago, 
one  who  took  his  stand  upon  the  top  of  the  true  Bunker 
Hill,  before  its  crown  had  been  removed,  could  trace  the 
lines  of  the  works  which  the  British  erected  there  with  skill 
and  complication  after  they  took  possession  of  the  town. 
The  battle  summit,  Breed's  Hill,  —  not  known  by  that  name 
till  after  the  action,  —  has  not  been  reduced  at  the  top,  but  it 


THE  SCENE  AND  ITS  SURROUNDINGS.       II 

is  so  closed  around  that  few  of  the  points  to  which  reference 
has  to  be  made  in  tracing  the  events  of  the  day  are  visible 
from  it.  Yet,  by  mounting  the  tall  shaft,  the  visitor  with  an 
instructed  eye,  looking  in  turn  through  each  of  its  four  win- 
dows, may  with  some  satisfaction  of  his  curiosity  reproduce 
some  of  the  more  important  features  of  the  scene.  Those 
who  were  the  prime  actors  in  it  would  doubtless  prefer  to 
gaze  upon  it  from  their  own  monument  as  it  now  is.  We, 
however,  try  for  the  hour  to  restore  their  panorama. 

The  three  quarters  of  a  circle  of  headlands,  slopes,  penin- 
sulas, and  eminences,  once  united  by  green  levels,  or  divided 
by  watercourses,  and  embracing  a  circuit  of  more  than 
twenty  miles,  which  we  may  now  sweep  from  the  windows  of 
the  monument,  was  at  the  time  arrayed  in  all  the  beauty  of 
its  summer  garb ;  but  it  was  stirring  with  all  the  signs  of 
military  occupancy  and  activity.  The  wide-spread  wings  of  a 
patriotic  army,  such  as  has  been  described,  extended  over  it, 
enclosing  a  dark  spot  with  a  coveted  prize  in  the  good  town 
of  Boston.  Seaward,  were  the  fair  islands  of  the  Bay.  The 
enemy  was  rich  in  every  form  of  water-craft,  ships  of  war, 
gun-boats,  transports,  floats,  and  barges.  But  even  with  these 
they  had  to  be  very  watchful,  as  they  ventured  near  the  shore 
of  main  or  island  ;  for  never  were  rats  watched  more  patiently 
at  their  holes  by  skilled  mousers,  than  were  they  by  keen-eyed 
patriots,  as  yet  not  enrolled,  but  prospecting  on  their  own 
charges  and  gains.  A  portion  of  Colonel  Gerrish's  regiment 
from  Essex  and  Middlesex,  and  a  detachment  of  New  Hamp- 
shire troops  stationed  on  the  hills  of  Chelsea,  formed  the  tip 
of  the  left  wing  of  the  patriot  array.  All  along  the  eastern 
seaboard,  to  Cape  Ann  and  Portsmouth,  were  watchful  spies 
on  the  alert  to  spread  the  alarm  if  the  British  should  any- 
where attempt  a  landing.  Colonels  Reed  and  Stark,  next  in 
the  line,  were  stationed  at  Medford  with  their  New  Hamp- 
shire regiments.  Lechmere's  Point,  at  East  Cambridge,  was 
guarded  against  the  enemy's  landing,  to  which  it  offered 
great  facilities,  by  parts  of  Colonel  Little's  and  other  regi- 


12  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]    HILL. 

ments.  General  Ward,  with  the  main  body  of  about  9,000 
troops,  and  four  companies  of  artillery,  occupied  Cambridge, 
its  college  halls  as  they  then  were,  its  English  church,  the 
vacated  dwellings  of  some  tories  who  had  sought  a  change  of 
air,  and  the  intervals  of  field  and  woodland. 

The  broad  spaces  of  oozy  and  tide-soaked  marsh,  which 
doubled  the  present  width  of  the  rivers,  were  about  equally  a 
protection  and  a  hindrance  to  military  operations  on  either 
side.  We  must  forget  such  things  as  bridges,  for  there  was 
not  one  within  the  bounds  of  the  historic  scenes,  save  on  the 
side  of  Cambridge  towards  Brighton.  The  salt  flats  had  no 
causeways  over  them,  and  the  shortest,  even  the  only  way 
between  any  two  places,  was  a  great  way  round.  All  the 
numerous  points  of  highland,  the  farms,  and  the  main  roads, 
were  cautiously  defended  or  guarded.  Lieutenant-General 
Thomas,  with  5,000  troops  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Connecticut,  constituted  the  right  wing  of  the  army 
at  Roxbury  and  Dorchester. 

Charlestown  itself,  like  Boston,  was  also  a  pear-shaped 
peninsula,  swelling  roundly  to  the  sea,  into  which  flowed  the 
Charles  and  the  Mystic,  whose  waters  approached  so  closely  at 
the  stem  or  neck,  uniting  it  to  the  mainland,  that  one  might 
stand  upon  it  and  toss  a  stone  into  the  borders  of  either 
river.  Charlestown,  too,  like  Boston,  had  originally  its  five 
hill-tops,  —  for  Boston's  trimount  designated  only  the  three 
peaks  of  its  Beacon  Hill,  and  it  had,  besides,  its  Fort  Hill 
and  its  Copp's  Hill.  The  lowest  of  Charlestown's  hills  was 
a  place  of  graves,  where  some  of  the  stones  to  this  day  show 
the  scars  from  the  British  cannon.  The  next,  or  Town  Hill, 
was  the  public  centre  of  the  municipality.  Moulton's  Point, 
whence  the  bridge  to  Chelsea  now  starts,  and  where  the  British 
forces  made  their  first  landing  to  assault  the  American  works, 
has  been  wholly  levelled  within  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Of 
this,  as  of  the  other  two  summits,  more  is  to  be  said  by- 
and-by. 

The  patriot  army,  thus  extended,  could   be   reached  for 


THE  BRITISH  ARMY  IN  BOSTON.  13 

assault  by  land  only  across  Roxbury  Neck,  at  which  point, 
however,  the  intrenchments  of  the  enemy  and  the  safeguards 
of  the  provincials  seemed  to  be  equally  secure.  To  a  certain 
extent,  also,  the  exposure  of  so  many  places  in  the  American 
lines  to  injury  from  the  armed  ships  and  the  floating  batteries 
of  the  British  was  offset  by  shoal  waters,  swamps,  and  inter- 
secting creeks. 

THE    BRITISH    ARMY    IN    BOSTON. 
Such  were  the  constitution  and  the  disposition  of  the  pro- 
vincial forces  when  they  found  themselves  engaged  in   the 
strange,  but  emergent,  work  of  beleaguering  their  own  chief 
town  of  Boston.     That  little  peninsula  was  thus  completely 
invested  and   hemmed   in.     A  few  days  after  the  affair  at 
Lexington,  when  virtually  the  siege  began,  General  Gage,  the 
British  commander,  at  the  solicitation  of  some  of  the  leading 
citizens  assembled  in  Faneuil  Hall,  had,  by  a  mutual  under- 
standing, entered  into  an  agreement  that  such  of  the  inhabi- 
tants as  wished  to  depart  from  the  town  should  be  at  liberty 
to  do  so,  if  they  would  leave  their  arms  behind  them  and 
covenant  not  to  engage  in  any  hostility  against  his  army. 
The  agreement  was  availed  of  by  many  of  the  suffering  and 
frightened  people,  whose  means  of  living  and  opportunities  to 
procure  food  were   made  precarious  by  the  siege;  and  they 
removed  with  their  families  and  such  of  their  effects  as  they 
could  carry  with   them.     The  provincials  reciprocated   this 
indulgence  by  allowing  such  of  those  within  their  lines  and 
of  those  who  had  been  driven  in  from  the  country,  as  had 
tory  proclivities,  to  go  into  the  town  for  a  refuge.     But  the 
original  freedom  and  fulness  of   this  understanding,  on  the 
part  of  General  Gage,  were  soon  reduced  by  a  very  strict 
examination  of  those  who  sought  to  go  out  of  the  town,  and 
by  a  rigid  search  of  the  effects  which  they  wished  to  take 
with  them.     The  tories,  who  clung  to  his  protection,  likewise 
objected  to  the  free  and  loose  privilege  of  withdrawal  allowed 
to  those  in  sympathy  with  the  rebels,  and  to  making  the  town 


14  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 

a  refuge  only  for  the  loyalists,  as  in  the  event  of  an  assault 
by  the  provincials  their  violence  would  have  so  much  more 
of  excitement  to  inflame  it,  and  so  much  less  of  caution  or  for- 
bearance to  restrain  it.  Several  of  the  inhabitants  remained 
in  it  from  different  motives  :  some  as  devoted  loyalists  ;  some 
as  timid  neutrals  ;  some  as  spies,  to  watch  each  hostile  move- 
ment and  to  communicate  it  to  their  friends  outside.  Some  of 
these  last,  together  with  many  deserters  from  the  army,  would 
occasionally  cross  the  waters  by  swimming,  or  in  skiffs  by 
night,  or  would  even  contrive  to  pass  the  Roxbury  lines,  and 
either  enter  the  American  army  or  seek  farm-work  in  the 
country.  For  many  years  after  the  war  there  were  scattered 
over  New  England  many  stragglers,  as  well  as  some  respect- 
able householders,  who  found  it  embarrassing,  when  ques- 
tioned, either  to  trace  their  heritage  on  this  soil  or  to  account 
for  their  exile  to  it.  The  secret,  known  to  themselves  only, 
was,  that  they  were  deserters,  or  the  children  of  deserters. 
The  farming  towns  of  New  Hampshire  and  New  York  in  this 
way  adopted  many  of  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  and  more 
still  of  the  Hessian  mercenaries. 

Among  those  who  did  not  leave  Boston  were  some,  both 
loyalists  and  patriots,  who  remained  there  mainly  to  secure 
and  watch  over  property  which  they  could  not  remove.  After 
hostilities  commenced,  General  Gage,  of  course,  regarded  the 
citizens  as  alike  prisoners,  either  in  the  same  sense  in  which  he 
was  himself  under  restraint,  or  as  abettors  of  those  who  were 
his  enemies.  By  the  spies  and  deserters  our  officers  generally 
received  full  information  of  all  that  occurred  in  Boston  during 
the  whole  time  of  its  investment  by  the  provincials.  The 
word  "  British  "  had  now  become  odious  and  exasperating  ;  and 
though  the  regular  army,  encamped  in  the  capital,  might 
affect  to  despise  the  undisciplined  multitude  which  kept  it  in 
such  close  quarters,  it  was  compelled  to  regard  its  opponents 
as  powerful  and  formidable.  The  population  of  the  town, 
independent  of  the  military,  was  then  about  1 8,000.  To  all 
those  who  were  not  in  sympathy  with  them  the  British  be- 


THE  BRITISH  ARMY  IN  BOSTON.  15 

haved  in  an  insulting  and  exasperating  manner.  Only  from 
private  letters,  which  came  to  light  long  after  all  risk  from  the 
exposure  of  their  contents  had  been  quieted,  did  those  of  a 
later  generation  learn  the  details  of  the  sufferings  and  the 
insults  endured  by  some  of  those  whose  circumstances  com- 
pelled them  to  remain  in  Boston.  During  the  nine  months 
following  the  battle  in  Charlestown,  through  which  the 
beleaguered  British  were  compelled  to  bear  their  confinement, 
the  constraint  and  sufferings  of  their  own  humiliation  in- 
creased, and  they  avenged  themselves  by  harsh  and  wanton 
deeds  of  mischief  and  vengefulness.  To  show,  as  members  of 
the  English  Church  establishment,  their  contempt  of  congre- 
gational places  of  worship,  they  removed  the  pews  and  pulpit 
from  the  Old  South  meeting-house,  and,  covering  the  floor 
with  earth,  they  converted  it  into  a  riding-school  for  Burgoyne's 
squadron  of  cavalry.  The  two  eastern  galleries  were  allowed 
to  remain,  one  for  spectators,  the  other  for  a  liquor-shop, 
while  the  fire  in  the  stove  was  occasionally  kindled  by  books 
and  pamphlets  from  the  library  of  a  former  pastor,  Dr. 
Prince,  which  were  in  a  room  in  the  tower.  One  of  the  most 
precious  manuscripts  of  the  early  Plymouth  Colony,  Governor 
Bradford's  History,  was  purloined  from  that  library,  and  car- 
ried to  England.  It  was  traced,  only  a  few  years  ago,  to  the 
library  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  at  Fulham  ;  and  he  allowed 
a  copy  of  it  to  be  taken  for  publication  by  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society.  Brattle  Street  meeting-house  was  treated 
with  similar  indignity.  The  steeple  of  the  West  meeting- 
house was  destroyed,  because  it  had  been  used  for  a  signal- 
station.  The  Old  North  meeting-house  and  several  dwellings 
were  consumed  for  fuel.  As  the  cold  weather  came  on  during 
the  siege;  all  who  were  in  Boston,  friends  and  foes  alike,  suf- 
fered extremely  for  the  lack  of  vegetables  and  fresh  provisions 
and  firewood,  and  the  sills  of  the  wharves  were  stripped  for 
that  purpose. 

At  the  time  of  the  skirmishes  at  Lexington  and  Concord 
there  were  about  4,000  British  troops  in  Boston  and  at  the 


l6  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S  [BREED'S]   HILL. 

Castle.  The  number  was  increased  to  more  than  10,000 
before  the  action  in  Charlestown.  The  best  disciplined  and 
most  experienced  soldiers  in  the  kingdom,  many  of  them 
freshly  laurelled  in  the  recent  wars  on  the  European  continent, 
composed  the  invading  army.  Gage,  the  governor,  and  com- 
mander-in-chief, had  long  resided  in  America,  and  had  mar- 
ried here.  He  came  originally  as  a  lieutenant  under  Braddock, 
and  was  with  that  general  when  he  received  his  mortal  wound. 
He  had  been  Governor  of  Montreal,  had  succeeded  General 
Amherst  in  command  of  the  British  forces  on  this  continent, 
and  Hutchinson,  as  Governor  of  Massachusetts.  He  had  con- 
stantly, and  even  violently,  favored  the  oppressive  measures 
of  the  British  ministry  which  brought  on  the  war.  He  had 
strongly  fortified  Boston  by  a  double  line  of  intrenchments 
crossing  the  Neck,  and  by  batteries  there,  and  also  upon  the 
Common  commanding  Roxbury  and  Cambridge,  upon  Copp's 
Hill  commanding  Charlestown,  upon  Fort  Hill,  now  levelled, 
upon  the  northern  extremity  of  the  town  commanding  the 
harbor,  and  upon  West  Boston  Point.  There  were,  besides, 
at  least  twenty-five  armed  vessels  in  the  harbor.  Bating  the 
lack  of  fresh  provisions  and  fuel,  already  referred  to,  the  army 
was  lavishly  supplied  for  camp  and  field. 


THE  COMBATANTS  CONFRONTED. 

Thus  confronted,  both  armies  seemed  alike  confident  of 
success  and  anxious  for  a  trial,  though  each  had  its  own 
reasons  for  apprehension  and  the  consciousness  of  weak 
points  exposed.  The  British  were  naturally  mortified  at  their 
condition  as  besieged.  They  looked  with  misgiving  to  the 
heights  on  either  hand,  at  Charlestown  and  Dorchester,  and 
were  forming  plans  for  occupying  them,  having  decided  to 
make  a  movement  for  that  purpose  on  the  18th  of  June. 
They  regarded,  or  professed  to  regard,  their  opponents  as 
rude,  unskilled,  and  cowardly  farmers,  and  were  nettled  at 
being  kept  at  bay  by  an  army  of  men  in  shirt-sleeves  and 


THE  COMBATANTS  CONFRONTED.  17 

calico  frocks,  carrying  fowling-pieces  hardly  any  two  of  which 
were  of  the  same  calibre. 

The  provincials  did  not  feel  their  lack  of  discipline,  nor 
realize  what  would  be  the  consequences  of  it,  as  they  should 
have  done.     They  were  restless  under  restraint ;  they  were 
used,  so  far  as  they  had  had  any  military  experience,  only  to 
skirmishes,  and  thought  such  would  be  the  contest  before 
them.     Yet  in  the  Council  of  War  and  in  the  Committee  of 
Safety  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  safe  and 
expedient  measures  to  be  pursued.     If  the  heights  of  Charles- 
town  were  once  occupied  by  the  provincials,  they  would  have 
to  be  held  against  a  constant  cannonade,  if  not  also  an  assault. 
The  fire  of  the  enemy  could  not  long  be  returned,  as  there 
were  but  eleven  barrels  of  powder  in   the  camp,  and  these 
contained  one-sixth  of  the  whole  stock  in  the  province.     Gen- 
eral Ward,  and  Joseph  Warren,  who  was  chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  Safety,  and  had  been  elected  major-general  on  the 
14th  of  June,  —  not  yet  commissioned,  —  were  doubtful  about 
the  expediency  of  intrenching  on  Bunker  Hill.     General  Put- 
nam was  earnest  in  his  advocacy  of  the  measure.     He  said, 
"  The  Americans  are  not  at  all  afraid  of  their  heads,  though 
very  much  afraid  of  their  legs  :  if  you  cover  these,  they  will 
fight  for  ever."     Pomeroy  coincided  with  Putnam.     Pie  said 
he  was  willing  to  attack  the  enemy  with  five  cartridges  to  a 
man,  for  he  had   been  accustomed,  in   hunting  with  three 
charges  of  powder,  to  bring  home  two  or  three  deer.     Daring 
enterprise  prevailed  in  the  Council,  and  it  was  resolved  that 
the  heights  of  Charlestown,  which  had  been  reconnoitred  the 
month  previous  by  Colonels  Gridley  and  Henshaw,  and  Mr. 
Devens,  should  be  fortified.     On  the  15th  of  June,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Safety,  by  a  secret  vote,  which  was  not  recorded  till 
the  19th,  advised  the  taking  possession  of  Bunker's  Hill  and 
Dorchester  Heights.     On  the  next  day  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress, as  a  counterblast  to   General  Gage's  proclamation,  by 
which   Hancock  and  Adams  had  been    excepted   from   the 
proffer  of  a  general  amnesty,  issued  a  like  instrument,  in 

3 


l8  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREEDS]    HILL. 

which  his  Excellency  General  Gage  and  Admiral  Graves  were 
the  scape-goats. 

It  was  amid  the  full  splendor,  luxuriance,  and  heat  of  our 
summer,  when  rich  crops  were  waving  upon  all  the  hills  and 
valleys  around,  that  the  Council  of  War  decided  to  carry  into 
execution  the  vote  of  the  Committee  of  Safety.  We  may  put 
aside  the  question  as  to  prudence  or  promise  of  the  enter- 
prise, as  being  equally  difficult  of  decision  and  unimportant, 
save  as  the  misgivings  of  those  who  predicted  that  the  defi- 
ciency of  ammunition  would  endanger  a  failure,  were  proved 
by  the  result  to  be  well  grounded.  That  result,  as  we  shall 
see,  was  that  the  intrepid  provincials,  with  the  aid  of  a  hastily 
raised  earthen  redoubt,  a  slight  breastwork,  and  a  rail-fence, 
twice  staggered  and  repulsed  an  assailing  body  of  disciplined 
soldiers  of  thrice  their  numbers,  gallantly  led  on  by  coura- 
geous officers.  On  a  third  assault  the  provincials  were  driven 
from  hill  and  field,  the  probability  being,  as  even  some  of  the 
assailants  admitted,  that  if  they  had  had  ammunition  and 
bayonets  they  would  have  kept  the  ground  and  won  the  day. 

On  Friday,  June  16th,  the  same  day  on  which  Washington 
was  officially  informed  in  the  congress  at  Philadelphia  of  his 
appointment  to  the  command  of  the  continental  army  about 
to  be  enlisted,  General  Ward  issued  orders  to  Colonels  Pres- 
cott  and  Bridge,  and  the  commandant  of  Colonel  Frye's  regi- 
ment, to  have  their  men  ready  and  prepared  for  immediate 
service.  They  were  all  yeomen  from  Middlesex  and  Essex 
counties,  and  were  habituated  to  the  hard  labors  of  a  farm 
beneath  a  summer's  sun.  Captain  Gridley's  new  company  of 
artillery,  and  120  men  from  the  Connecticut  regiment,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Knowlton,  were  included  in  the 
order.  The  whole  force  may  have  numbered,  but  could  not 
have  exceeded,  1,200  men. 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  PROVINCIALS.  19 


THE    COMMANDER   OF   THE   PROVINCIALS    IN   THE 
BATTLE. 

In  1818,  a  controversy  arose  concerning  the  command  in 
this  action.  Who  was  actually  or  rightfully  its  military  head  ? 
This  question,  which  most  strangely  and  most  unfortunately 
became  mingled  with  party  politics,  was  very  earnestly  and 
passionately  discussed.  As  is  usual  in  such  cases  where  there 
is  more  than  one  opinion  or  side  for  partisanship,  there  were 
very  many  conflicting  views  and  judgments.  Every  possible 
or  conceivable  suggestion  as  to  the  command  was  advanced, 
and  had  some  degree  of  advocacy.  Some  maintained  that 
General  Ward  himself  should  be  regarded  as  the  responsible 
officer  of  the  day  in  all  its  operations.  Others  concluded  that 
there  was  really  no  commander,  in  full  authority  as  such,  on 
the  peninsula  of  Charlestown.  Others  still  sought  to  propi- 
tiate the  manes  of  the  officers,  whose  respective  champions 
were  urging  rival  claims  for  them,  by  dividing  the  honors  of 
the  command  among  two,  three,  or  four  chief  actors  at  the 
various  points  where  the  critical  movements  of  the  day 
occurred.  The  heroic  young  patriot,  Joseph  Warren,  who  fell 
mortally  wounded  on  leaving  the  redoubt,  had  the  honor  of 
the  day  assigned  to  him  as  chief  in  authority.  But  there  were 
many  who  heard  his  own  words,  when  Prescott  offered  to  him 
the  command,  that  he  had  not  yet  received  his  commission, 
and  was  on  the  ground  only  as  a  volunteer.  And  surely  there 
is  no  evidence  either  that  he  had  been  assigned  the  command 
or  that  he  gave  any  order  in  the  whole  action. 

The  ideal  picture  of  "  The  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,"  painted 
in  London,  by  the  Connecticut  artist,  Colonel  John  Trumbull, 
in  1786,  first  made  Putnam  the  central  figure  in  the  redoubt. 
The  Rev.  Josiah  Whitney,  in  a  sermon  at  the  funeral  of  General 
Putnam,  in  1790,  asserted  that  the  detachment  sent  from  Cam- 
bridge was  put  under  his  command.  Colonel  Daniel  Putnam, 
son  of  the  General,  in  a  letter  written  in  a  most  commendable 
spirit,  and  in  a  dignified  style  of  statement  and  argument,  and 


20  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 

addressed  to  the  officers  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Asso- 
ciation, in  1825,  advocates  his  father's  claims.  As  a  youth  of 
fifteen,  he  says,  he  was  with  his  father  at  Cambridge,  in  the 
camp,  and  for  years  after  conversed  with  him  freely  upon  what 
had  then  transpired.  Most  sincerely  and  most  naturally  the 
son  received  the  impression  that  his  father  was  in  command 
of  the  expedition.  But  the  careful  reading  of  this  letter  will 
show  that  the  son's  impression  was  a  matter  of  inference. 
The  intrepid  ardor  of  the  General  to  have  the  enterprise  under- 
taken at  any  risk,  and  his  active  movements  and  constant  cir- 
cuits through  the  day,  might  prompt  that  inference,  as  indicat- 
ing that  he  regarded  himself  as  virtually  charged  with  the  direc- 
tion and  oversight  of  the  whole  movement.  But  if  so,  his 
command  was  assumed,  for  it  certainly  was  not  assigned  to 
him.  Prescott  received  no  orders  from  him.  He  felt  himself 
at  liberty  to  move  about  at  his  pleasure,  and  he  left  the  penin- 
sula for  Cambridge  at  least  twice  during  the  day. 

The  only  decisive  authority  which  the  parties  to  this  heated 
and  acrimonious  controversy  would  have  admitted  to  be  sat- 
isfactory, would  have  been  the  production  of  the  official  order 
issued  by  General  Ward.  This,  however,  was  not  extant,  or 
not  available.  Judge  Advocate  Tudor,  who  presided  at  the 
courts-martial  instituted  by  General  Washington  on  his  arri- 
val at  Cambridge,  said  that  Colonel  Prescott  appeared  to  have 
been  in  command.  The  contradictory  and  discordant  state- 
ments of  those  who,  having  been  engaged  on  the  field  at  dif- 
ferent places  and  at  different  hours,  were  called  upon  in  the 
controversy  forty  years  afterwards  to  give  their  depositions  as 
to  who  was  the  commander-in-chief,  are  to  be  accounted  for 
by  the  lapse  of  time  and  the  effects  of  age,  with,  possibly,  an 
allowance  for  their  own  partialities  or  prejudices.  Besides, 
further  and  great  allowances  are  to  be  made  on  account  of 
the  confusion  in  the  army,  its  partially  organized  and  undis- 
ciplined condition  above  recognized,  and  the  hurried  and 
unsystematic  character  and  method  of  the  expedition. 

He  who  led  the  detachment  and  fulfilled  the  order  doubt- 


COMMANDER   OF  THE   PROVINCIALS.  21 

less  received  the  order.  The  order  was  to  intrench  and  to 
defend  the  intrenchments.  This  order  was  fulfilled  by  night 
and  by  day,  by  the  body  of  men  whom  Prescott  led  from 
Cambridge  to  Charlestown,  and  by  the  reinforcements  who 
joined  the  first  detachment  to  co-operate  with  it.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  there  was  during  the  action  any  transfer  of  the 
command  by  the  coming  on  the  ground  of  an  officer  of  supe- 
rior rank  to  Prescott,  or  of  any  assumption  of  superior  author- 
ity by  such  an  officer.  It  might  have  been  as  dangerous  then 
as  in  the  more  recent  crisis  in  the  nation's  fate,  —  to  have  done 
what  President  Lincoln,  in  his  own  way,  described  as  "  swop- 
ping horses  while  crossing  the  river."  Neither  is  there  any 
evidence  that  Prescott  received  an  order  during  the  day  from 
any  other  officer  than  General  Ward.  It  is  certain,  and  now 
beyond  all  question,  that  he  had  the  command  of  the  day  and 
the  action.  In  a  letter  which  he  wrote  from  Cambridge  to 
John  Adams,  a  little  more  than  two  months  after  the  affair, 
he  refers,  in  a  most  matter-of-fact  way,  to  his  having  received 
the  order  to  march  on  the  expedition  with  about  1,000  men, 
and  he  mentions,  in  connection  with  several  movements  of 
the  day,  his  own  directions  as  commander.  As  fair  and  im- 
partial a  detail  of  the  action  and  incidents  of  the  day,  as  the 
purpose  and  the  means  of  presenting  it  will  secure,  will  be 
sufficient  to  satisfy  the  desire  to  set  forth  the  simple  truth. 

William  Prescott  had  been  a  lieutenant  in  the  French  war 
at  the  taking  of  Cape  Breton.  While  working  on  his  farm  at 
Pepperell,  he  had  been  chosen  by  the  "  minute-men  "  as  their 
colonel.  After  the  affair  at  Lexington  he  led  his  men  to 
Cambridge.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  Council*  of  War. 
On  May  27,  being  nearly  fifty  years  old,  in  the  full  vigor  of 
robust  manhood,  and  of  unquailing  and  dauntless  courage,  he 
was  commissioned  as  colonel  of  the  "  Massachusetts  Army."  * 

*  See  note  at  the  end. 


22  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 


NIGHT  WORK. 

The  longest  days  of  the  year  in  the  latter  half  of  June  give 
scarce  seven  hours  for  any  enterprise  that  is  to  be  done  in 
concealment  and  darkness.  The  scene  of  the  work  now  in 
hand  was  so  near  to  a  watchful  enemy  that  even  a  loud  sound 
might  ensure  exposure.  Colonel  Gridley  accompanied  the 
expedition  as  chief  engineer.  Three  companies  of  Bridge's 
regiment  did  not  go  ;  but  as  small  parties  of  other  regiments 
fell  into  the  detachment,  it  may  have  had  at  the  start  about 
1,000  men.  They  took  with  them  provisions  for  one  day, 
and  blankets  ;  and  the  promise  or  expectation  was  that  they 
were  to  be  reinforced  in  the  morning. 

Prescott  was  ordered  to  take  possession  of,  to  fortify,  and  to 
defend  Bunker's  Hill,  but  to  keep  the  purpose  of  the  expedi- 
tion secret.  Nor  was  this  known  to  the  men  until  they  came 
up  with  the  wagons,  on  Charlestown  Neck,  laden  with  the 
intrenching  tools.  The  detachment  was  drawn  up  upon  Cam- 
bridge Common,  in  front  of  the  pastor's  homestead,  which 
General  Ward  occupied  as  head-quarters,  and  prayer  was 
offered  by  the  Reverend  President  of  the  College,  Dr.  Lang- 
don,  who  had  himself  been  a  classmate  of  Samuel  Adams. 
The  expedition  was  in  motion  about  nine  o'clock,  the  dark- 
ness just  serving.  Prescott,  with  two  sergeants  carrying 
dark  lanterns  open  in  the  rear,  led  the  way.  Though  Pres- 
cott has  frequently  been  represented  in  accounts  and  pic- 
tures of  the  battle  as  dressed  in  the  working  garb  of  the 
farmer,  and  appears  in  Trumbull's  ideal  painting  as  wearing  a 
slouched  hat  and  bearing  a  musket,  he  was  in  fact  arrayed  in 
a  simple  and  appropriate  military  costume,  a  three-cornered 
hat,  a  blue  coat,  with  a  single  row  of  buttons,  lapped  and 
faced,  and  he  carried  his  well-proved  sword.  This  statement 
may  be  thought  a  trivial  correction,  but  it  sometimes  happens 
that  important  facts  depend  upon  small  particulars.  As  the 
commander  was  sensitive  to  the  effects  of  summer  heat  and 


NIGHT  WORK.  23 

expected  warm  service,  he  took  with  him  a  linen  coat  or  ban- 
yan, now  called  a  sack,  which  he  wore  in  the  engagement. 

The  order  designated  "  Bunker's  Hill  "  as  the  position  to  be 
taken.  But  by  mounting  it,  even  to-day,  we  can  ourselves 
see  that,  cannonaded  as  it  might  be  by  shipping  in  the  rivers, 
and  annoyed  by  defences  put  up  by  the  enemy  on  Breed's 
Hill,  it  would  have  been  altogether  untenable  except  in  con- 
nection with  the  latter  summit;  while  for  all  purposes  of 
restraining  and  annoying  the  enemy  in  Boston,  Breed's  Hill, 
with  any  reasonable  works  on  its  top,  and  its  right  and  left 
declivities,  would  be  a  far  superior  position.  It  would  seem 
that,  outside  of  Charlestown,  at  least,  the  Hill  on  which  the 
engagement  took  place  was  not  known  by  its  present  distinc- 
tive name  till  after  the  war.  Charlestown  Heights,  or  Bun- 
ker's Hill,  was  the  comprehensive  designation. 

Much  time,  however,  was  consumed  in  deliberation,  and  the 
natural  hesitancy  of  a  bewildered  anxiety  manifested  by  those 
who,  equally  concerned  for  the  success  of  an  enterprise  under 
any  circumstances  fearfully  hazardous,  differed  widely  in 
opinion  as  to  the  best  course  to  be  pursued.  This  hesitancy, 
which  was  felt  on  the  way,  resulted  in  a  provoking  delay  of 
action  after  the  detachment  had  crossed  the  neck  and  reached 
the  peninsula.  It  was  only  after  the  repeated  and  urgent 
warnings  of  the  engineer  that  any  further  postponement  of  a 
decision  as  to  the  spot  where  the  intrenchments  should  be 
raised  would  make  the  whole  enterprise  a  failure,  that  it  was 
concluded,  even  then  not  in  accordance  with  the  judgment  of 
all  the  advisers,  to  construct  the  works  upon  Breed's  Hill.  It 
seems  that  the  compromise,  while  allowing  the  occupancy  and 
defence  of  the  lower  summit  to  have  the  priority,  carried  with 
it  a  purpose  to  fortify  Bunker's  Hill  as  soon  as  possible  after- 
wards. The  deliberation  and  the  delay  brought  on  the  mid- 
night hour  before  the  engineer  had  traced  the  lines  of  the 
proposed  redoubt,  and  spades  and  pickaxes  were  busily  plied 
to  raise  the  protecting  shield  of  loose  earth. 

In  the  account  of  the  engagement  afterwards  prepared  by 


24  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]    HILL. 

the  Massachusetts  Congress,  it  is  said  that  Breed's  Hill  was 
occupied  and  fortified  by  a  mistake.  The  reason  for  this 
statement  is  not  apparent  to  us.  Probably  if  both  summits 
could  have  been  simultaneously  intrenched  and  defended  by 
troops  well  supplied  with  ammunition  and  artillery,  the  pro- 
vincials might  have  maintained  their  ground.  But  by  oc- 
cupying Bunker's  Hill  alone,  with  such  scanty  military 
appliances  as  they  had,  they  could  not  have  prevented  the 
landing  nor  thwarted  the  hostile  operations  of  the  enemy. 
As  the  summits  are  not  within  musket-shot,  and  as  the  Brit- 
ish would  certainly  have  occupied  Breed's  Hill,  if  it  had  not 
first  been  secured  by  the  provincials,  our  scant  ammunition 
and  weak  artillery  would  have  been  of  but  little  avail.  . 

The  relative  features  of  the  two  summits  have  not  as  yet 
been  essentially  changed,  except  by  the  reduction  and  partial 
grading  of  the  higher  one,  and  the  filling  in  of  the  quagmire 
between  them.  Their  highest  points  were  about  130  rods 
apart,  Bunker's  Hill  lying  a  few  rods  north  of  a  line  drawn 
westward  from  Breed's  Hill,  which  is  directly  opposite  to 
Copp's  Hill  in  Boston  with  a  space  of  less  than  a  mile, 
including  the  river,  dividing  them.  A  straight  road  then, 
as  now,  beginning  at  the  narrowest  point  of  Charlcstown 
Neck,  ascended  and  crossed  the  summit  of  Bunker's  Hill,  at 
an  elevation,  before  reduction,  of  112  feet,  descended  to  the 
base,  and  there  joined  a  road  that  completely  encircled  the 
base  of  Breed's  Hill,  which  has  a  height  of  about  62  feet. 
One  cross-road,  now  Wood  Street,  connected  this  encircling 
road  with  what  is  now  the  Main  Street  of  Charlestown.  Back 
of  the  two  summits  the  land  sloped,  with  occasional  irregu- 
larities, down  to  the  Mystic  River.  An  elevated  point  of 
land,  bearing  east  from  Breed's  Hill  and  extending  towards 
the  bay,  and  called  Morton's  or  Moulton's  Point,  swelled  into 
a  summit  35  feet  high,  called  Morton's  Hill.  This  has  now 
been  levelled.  The  bridge  to  Chelsea  starts  from  this  Point. 
Between  Breed's  Hill  and  the  Point  much  of  the  ground  was 
sloughy,  and  several  brick  yards  and  kilns  were  worked  there. 


NIGHT  WORK.  25 

Breed's  Hill  was  then  chiefly  used  by  householders  in  Charles- 
town  for  pasturage,  and  was  intersected  by  many  fences. 
Towards  Mystic  River  and  the  Point  some  patches  at  the 
time  of  the  action  were  covered  with  tall,  waving  grass,  ripe 
for  the  scythe,  while  farther  back,  on  the  margin  of  the  river, 
at  the  base  of  the  two  summits,  were  fine  crops  of  hay,  just 
mown,  lying  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  in  winrows  and  cocks. 
The  fences  and  the  tall,  unmown  grass,  which  were  of  great 
advantage  to  the  provincials  in  their  stationary  defences,  were 
grievous  impediments  and  annoyances  to  the  British  in  their 
advances.  There  were  then  only  two  or  three  houses  and 
barns  on  the  south-western  slope  of  Breed's  Hill.  The  edi- 
fices of  the  town  were  gathered  around  the  present  Square, 
and  extended  sparsely  along  the  Main  Street  to  the  Neck. 

The  monument  occupies  the  centre  of  the  redoubt,  which 
was  eight  rods  square  ;  the  southern  side,  running  parallel 
with  the  Main  Street,  was  constructed  with  one  projecting 
and  two  entering  angles.  On  a  line  with  the  eastern  side, 
which  faced  the  Navy  Yard,  was  a  breastwork  of  nearly  400 
feet  in  length,  running  down  the  hill  towards  the  Mystic. 
The  sally-port  opened  upon  the  angle  between  this  breast- 
work and  the  northern  side  of  the  redoubt,  and  was  defended 
by  a  blind.  Colonel  Gridley  planned  the  works,  which  ex- 
hibited a  combination  of  military  science  and  Yankee  in- 
genuity. No  vestige  of  the  redoubt  now  remains,  but  a 
portion  of  the  breastwork  is  distinctly  visible.  When  a 
square  was  cut  around  the  monument  grounds  for  house-lots, 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  the  remains  of  the 
works  raised  by  the  British  after  the  battle,  lying  west  of  the 
monument,  which  had  previously  been  plain  to  the  eye,  all 
disappeared. 

Though  the  hands  which  spaded  the  bulwarks  of  earth  on 
that  summit  during  the  night  of  Friday,  June  16th,  were  used 
to  daily  toil,  and  brought  to  their  unwonted  midnight  task 
the  most  unflinching  courage  and  determination,  it  was  still  a 
work  of  dreadful  anxiety.     It  was  a  bright  starlight  night  of 

4 


26  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]   HILL. 

midsummer,  when  the  long  hours  of  the  day  almost  deny  an 
interval  to  the  darkness,  and  we  expect  almost  momentarily 
after  twilight  in  the  west  to  behold  the  gray  of  morning  in 
the  east.  There  was  a  remnant  of  a  waning  moon  just  before 
midnight.  A  guard  was  stationed  at  the  shore  nearest  Boston, 
to,  anticipate  any  movement  of  the  enemy.  Prescott  himself 
went  down  there  with  Brooks,  afterwards  governor  of  the 
State,  then  a  major  in  Bridge's  regiment,  and  heard  from  the 
sentries  relieving  guard  on  the  vessels  the  assuring  cry,  "  All's 
well."  After  a  while,  Prescott,  thinking  it  impossible  that 
the  sentries  could  be  so  hard  of  hearing,  made  another  visit 
to  the  river's  brink,  and,  finding  all  secure,  recalled  the  guard. 
The  work  went  on,  and  burdened  moments  accomplished  the 
results  of  ordinary  hours.  There  was  a  scene  and  an  enter- 
prise for  the  imagination  to  picture.  Even  the  narrow  space 
between  the  shores  was  wider  than  the  distance  between 
those  midnight  delvers  and  their  enemies.  At  least  five 
armed  vessels  then  floated  in  the  middle  of  the  stream.  The 
"  Glasgow,"  on  the  line  of  Craigie's,  or  East  Cambridge,  Bridge, 
with  24  guns  and  130  men,  commanded  the  summit  of  Bun- 
ker's Hill  and  the  Neck,  by  which  the  peninsula  commu- 
nicated with  Medford  and  Cambridge.  The  "  Somerset," 
with  68  guns  and  520  men,  lying  near  the  draw  of  the  present 
easternmost  bridge,  commanded  Charlestown  Square  and  its 
dwellings.  The  "Lively,"  with  20  guns  and  130  men,  lying 
off  the  present  Navy  Yard,  could  throw  its  shot  directly  upon 
the  redoubt.  The  "  Falcon,"  sloop  of  war,  lying  off  Moulton's 
Point,  defended  the  ascent  between  the  landing-places  of  the 
British  and  Breed's  Hill.  The  "  Cerberus,"  of  36  guns,  main- 
tained a  continual  fire  during  the  assaults  on  the  provincials. 
These  ships  were  most  aptly  moored  for  the  purposes  of  the 
enemy,  and  it  seems  almost  impossible  that  the  sentries  could 
have  been  wakeful  at  their  posts  and  not  have  heard  the 
operations  of  nearly  a  thousand  men  upon  the  Hill  and 
near  it. 


THE  DAWN  AND  THE  CONFLICT.  27 

THE    DAWN    AND    THE    CONFLICT. 

The  four  hours  of  darkness  after  the  work  of  intrenchment 
began  at  last  gave  place  to  the  beams  of  early  morning.  On 
that  moment,  when  the  sun  sent  forth  the  first  heralds  of  his 
coming,  seems  to  have  been  suspended  the  fate  of  empires. 
Could  the  provincials  have  been  favored  with  a  dull  and  heavy 
fog,  like  that  which  afterwards  gave  them  such  help  in  de- 
laying the  discovery  of  their  works  on  Dorchester  Heights, 
allowing  secret  communication  with  Cambridge  and  more 
secure  defences,  they  might  possibly  have  retained  their  posi- 
tion. How  awfully  in  contrast  with  the  spell  of  glory  which 
poured  out  over  the  darkened  sky  and  the  dew-sprinkled  earth 
from  the  bursting  radiance  of  the  sun,  was  to  be  the  scene  on 
which  the  sun  would  go  down  upon  that  green  eminence. 
That  scene,  where  the  heavens  in  their  effulgence  greeted  the 
earth  in  its  loveliness,  was  to  present  at  evening  the  most 
shocking  horrors  of  desolation  and  agony.  If  true  patriotism, 
if  wise  policy,  at  least  if  the  love  which  Christian  people 
of  the  same  blood  and  lineage  should  bear  to  each  other,  had 
been  allowed  its  full,  free  influence  over  the  parties  in  the 
approaching  struggle,  how  much  misery  and  fruitless  wretch- 
edness might  have  been  averted  !  Even  then  it  was  not  too 
late  for  simple  justice  to  have  ensured  peace.  The  blood  shed 
at  Concord  and  Lexington,  with  the  long  list  of  antecedent 
outrages,  might  have  been  forgiven  by  our  fathers.  They 
had  not  in  any  case  been  the  aggressors.  They  acted  only 
on  the  defensive.  The  blows  which  they  struck  were  to  ward 
off  other  blows  to  follow  those  already  received.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  the  heights  of  Charlestown  were  occupied  for 
any  other  purpose  than  that  of  defence,  to  confine  the  enemy 
to  the  narrow  quarters  into  which  they  had  intruded,  and  to 
prevent  a  repetition  of  hostile  incursions  into  the  country. 

When  the  morning  sun  displayed  to  the  astonished  invaders 
the  character  of  the  last  night's  labor,  and  showed  them  the 
workmen  still  employed  with  undismayed  hearts  and  unex- 


28  THE   BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]  HILL. 

hausted  hands,  it  was  not  even  then  too  late  for  peace.  Gage 
and  his  officers,  at  least,  if  their  hired  subordinates  did  not, 
should  have  honored,  though  they  might  not  have  feared,  that 
patriot  band  ;  should  have  respected  the  spirit  which  controlled 
them,  and  have  counted  the  cost  of  the  bloody  issue.  But 
not  one  moment,  not  one  word,  perhaps  not  one  thought,  was 
spent  upon  hesitation,  intercession,  or  remonstrance. 

The  instant  that  the  first  beams  of  light  marked  distinctly 
the  outlines  of  the  daring  provincials  and  of  their  intrench- 
ments  on  the  Hill,  the  cannon  of  the  "  Lively,"  which  floated 
nearest,  opened  a  hot  fire  upon  them,  at  the  same  time  arous- 
ing the  sleepers  in  Boston  to  come  forth  as  spectators  or 
actors  in  the  cruel  tragedy.  The  other  armed  vessels,  some 
floating  batteries,  and  that  on  Copp's  Hill,  1,200  yards  distant, 
combined  to  pour  forth  their  volleys,  uttering  a  startling  and 
dismal  note  of  preparation  for  the  day's  conflict.  But  the 
works,  though  not  completed,  were  in  a  state  of  such  forward- 
ness that  the  missiles  of  destruction  fell  wellnigh  harmless, 
and  the  intrenchers  continued  to  strengthen  their  position. 
The  earthwork  was  between  six  and  seven  feet  high.  The 
enemy  in  Boston  could  scarcely  credit  their  eyesight.  Pres- 
cott,  the  hero  of  the  day,  with  whom  its  proudest  fame  should 
rest,  was  undaunted,  ardent,  and  full  of  a  bounding  energy. 
He  devised  and  directed  ;  he  encouraged  his  men  ;  he  mounted 
the  works  ;  and  with  his  bald  head  uncovered,  and  his  com- 
manding frame,  and  his  simple  military  insignia,  he  was  a 
noble  personification  of  a  patriot  cause.  Some  of  the  men 
incautiously  ventured  in  front  of  the  works,  when  one  of  them 
was  instantly  killed  by  a  cannon  shot.  This  first  victim  was 
at  once  interred,  and  his  companions  were  warned  of  what  the 
day  would  bring  nearer  to  them. 

When  the  orders  had  been  issued  at  Cambridge  the  pre- 
vious evening,  to  those  who  had  thus  complied  with  them, 
refreshments  and  reinforcements  had  been  promised  in  the 
morning.  Thus  some  of  the  weary  men,  who  had  not  one 
moment  for  sleep  or  repose,  but  had  been  tasked  to  the  utter- 


PREPARATIONS   OF  THE   ENEMY.  29 

most,  might  have  inferred  that  they  had  done  their  work, 
were  entitled  to  relief,  and  were  even  at  liberty  to  depart. 
Some  few  did  leave  the  Hill,  and  did  not  return.  Those  who 
remained  were  exhausted  with  their  toil,  without  food  or 
water,  and  the  morning  was  already  intensely  hot.  Two 
barrels  of  water  had  been  knocked  in  pieces  by  a  shot  from 
one  of  the  vessels.  Some  of  the  officers,  sympathizing  with 
the  situation  and  sufferings  of  the  men,  requested  Prescott  to 
send  to  Cambridge  for  relief  by  another  detachment  to  hold 
the  works.  He  summoned  a  council  of  officers,  but  was  him- 
self resolute  against  the  petition,  saying  that  the  enemy  would 
not  venture  an  attack,  and,  if  they  did  venture,  would  be 
repulsed  ;  that  the  men  who  had  raised  the  works  were  best 
able  to  defend  them,  and  deserved  the  honor  of  a  sure  victory, 
and  that  they  had  already  learned  to  despise  the  fire  of  the 
enemy.  The  vehemence  of  the  commander  infused  new  spirit 
into  the  men,  and  they  resolved  to  stand  the  dread  issue. 
Prescott  ordered  a  guard  to  the  ferry  to  resist  a  landing  there. 
He  was  seen  by  Gage,  who  was  reconnoitring  from  Copp's 
Hill,  and  who  asked  of  Counsellor  Willard,  at  his  side,  "  Who 
is  that  officer  commanding  ? "  Willard  recognized  his  own 
brother-in-law,  and  named  Colonel  Prescott.  "  Will  he  fight  ? " 
asked  Gage.  The  answer  was,  "  Yes,  sir,  depend  upon  it,  to 
the  last  drop  of  blood  in  him  ;  but  I  cannot  answer  for  his 
men."  Yet  Prescott  could  answer  for  his  men,  and  that 
amounted  to  more  than  Willard's  opinion. 


PREPARATIONS   OF   THE   ENEMY. 

The  measures  of  the  enemy  were  undoubtedly  delayed  by 
sheer  amazement  and  surprise,  on  finding  that  the  intrepidity 
of  the  provincials  had  anticipated  them  in  an  enterprise  which 
they  had  deliberately  decided  to  take  upon  themselves.  In 
the  Council  of  War  called  by  Gage,  at  the  Province  House, 
all  were  unanimous  that  the  enemy  must  be  dislodged ;  but 
there  were  different  opinions  as  to  the  manner  of  effecting 


30  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]   HILL. 

this  object.  The  majority  agreed  with  Generals  Clinton  and 
Grant  in  advising  that  the  troops  should  be  embarked  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Common,  in  boats,  and,  under  the  protection  of 
the  ships  and  floating  batteries,  should  land  at  Charlestown, 
and  thus  hold  provincials  and  intrenchments  at  their  mercy. 
But  General  Gage  overruled  the  advice,  and  determined  upon 
landing  and  making  an  attack  in  front  of  the  works,  fearing 
that  his  troops,  if  landed  at  the  Neck  in  Charlestown,  would 
be  ruinously  entrapped  by  the  intrenchers  and  the  main  forces 
at  Cambridge. 

The  grounds  for  this  difference  of  opinion  among  the  royal 
officers  in  council,  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued  in  an  effort 
to  dislodge  the  provincials,  were  so  obvious  and  natural,  that 
they  would  seem  to  have  been  anticipated  in  the  camp  at 
Cambridge,  and  to  have  had  their  influence  there.  All  through 
the  day  General  Ward  was  apprehending  that  a  landing  might 
be  attempted  at  the  Neck,  and  was  of  course  distracted  by 
this  apprehension  as  to  the  expediency  and  safety  of  weaken- 
ing his  own  force  by  sending  further  detachments  to  the 
peninsula.  The  armed  vessels  of  the  enemy  were  very  active 
during  the  day  in  raking  the  low  tongue  of  land  between 
Cambridge  and  Charlestown,  and  many  who  passed  between 
the  two  towns  made  a  long  circuit  on  the  ridges  bordering 
upon  Medford.  The  enemy  did  open  a  brisk  cannonade  upon 
Roxbury  ;  and  this  increased  the  fears  of  General  Ward,  that 
they  might  divide  their  forces,  and,  while  assailing  the  in- 
trenchers in  front  or  rear,  rush  out  upon  Cambridge  or 
Watertown,  where  the  scanty  stores  were  deposited.  These 
facts  account  for  the  hesitation  of  Ward  to  comply  with  the 
urgent  solicitations  brought  to  him  through  messengers  sent 
frequently  through  the  day  from  Prescott  and  Putnam,  for 
reinforcements  on  the  peninsula. 

By  nine  o'clock  the  bustle  and  array  in  Boston,  visible  from 
the  Hill  in  Charlestown,  indicated  that  preparations  were 
making  for  an  attempt  to  dislodge  the  provincials.  Prescott 
therefore  abandoned  his  first  confident  opinion  that  he  would 


PREPARATIONS   OF  THE   ENEMY.  3 1 

not  be  assailed,  and  comforted  himself  and  his  men  with  the 
assurance  of  immunity  and  of  a  glorious  victory.  He  sent 
Major  Brooks  to  General  Ward  to  urge  the  necessity  of  his 
being  reinforced  by  men  and  supplies.  As  Captain  Gridley 
would  not  risk  one  of  his  artillery  horses  on  the  road,  raked 
by  gunboats  and  by  the  "  Glasgow  "  frigate,  Brooks  had  to  go 
on  foot,  and  he  reached  head-quarters,  where  the  Committee 
of  Safety  was  then  in  session,  at  about  ten  o'clock.  Brooks's 
urgency,  seconded  by  the  solicitations  of  Richard  Devens,  a 
member  of  the  committee  and  a  citizen  of  Charlestown,  in- 
duced Ward  to  order  that  Colonels  Reed  and  Stark,  then  at 
Medford,  should  reinforce  Prescott  with  the  New  Hampshire 
troops.  The  companies  at  Chelsea  were  then  recalled,  and 
the  order  reached  Medford  at  eleven  o'clock.  The  men  were 
as  speedily  as  possible  provided  with  ammunition,  though 
much  time  was  consumed  in  the  preparation.  Each  received 
two  flints,  a  gill  of  powder,  and  lead  for  fifteen  balls.  They 
had  no  cartridge  boxes,  and  used  horns,  pouches,  or  their 
pockets  as  substitutes.  The  lead  organ-pipes  of  the  English 
Church  in  Cambridge  were  made  serviceable  for  slugs,  beaten 
by  the  men  into  size  and  shape  to  suit  the  different  calibre  of 
their  guns. 

General  Putnam,  burning  with  zeal  and  intrepidity,  was 
coursing  through  the  whole  day  over  nearly  all  of  the  con- 
tested field.  He  is  said  to  have  visited  the  redoubt  in  the 
night  or  in  the  early  morning.  He  was  mounted ;  and  so 
narrators,  who  were  in  or  near  the  action,  when  questioned 
at  the  time,  or  long  afterwards,  testified  to  seeing  him  in  so 
many  places  that  he  would  appear  to  have  been  wellnigh 
ubiquitous. 

Dr.  Joseph  Warren,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  self- 
sacrificing  of  the  many  patriots  of  the  time,  had  not  yet 
accepted  the  commission  already  mentioned  as  offered  him 
on  the  14th  of  June.  He  had  twice  maintained  the  cause  of 
his  country,  in  the  very  teeth  of  British  officers,  on  the  annual 
commemoration  of  the  5th  of  March.     When  the  report  of  the 


32  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]    HILL. 

coming  action  reached  him  at  Watertown,  where  he  then  was, 
as  acting  president  of  the  Provincial  Congress  and  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  of  Safety,  though  he  was  suffering  from 
illness  and  exhaustion,  he  resolved  to  join  in  the  strife. 
Wholly  inexperienced  as  he  was  in  military  tactics,  his  deter- 
mination could  not  be  shaken  by  the  earnest  remonstrances  of 
his  friends.  His  presence  and  counsel  were  needed  in  the 
Committee,  but  he  persisted  in  his  resolve.  We  must  lament, 
as  all  his  contemporaries  lamented,  that  his  heroism  outran 
his  prudence,  and  would  not  be  restrained  by  duty  in  another 
direction. 


EMBARKATION   AND   LANDING   OF  THE   ENEMY. 

From  their  slightly  fortified  Hill  the  provincials  could  watch 
and  mark  the  hostile  movements  and  preparations  of  the 
British.  General  Howe  was  put  in  command  of  their  detach- 
ment. The  following  extracts  from  his  Orderly  Book  will 
vividly  reproduce  a  part  of  the  arrangements  :  — . 

"General  Morning  Orders. 

Saturday,  June  17,  1775. 

The  companies  of  the  35th  and  49th  that  are  arrived,  to  land  as 
soon  as  the  transports  can  get  to  the- wharf,  and  to  encamp  on  the 
ground  marked  out  for  them  on  the  Common. 

Captain  Handheld  is  appointed  to  act  as  assistant  to  the  deputy- 
quartermaster  general,  and  is  to  be  obeyed  as  such. 

The  ten  eldest  companies  of  Grenadiers,  and  the  ten  eldest  com- 
panies of  Light  Infantry  (exclusive  of  those  of  the  regiments  lately 
landed),  the  5th  and  38th  Regiments,  to  parade  at  half  after  eleven 
o'clock,  with  their  arms,  ammunition,  blankets,  and  the  provisions 
ordered  to  be  cooked  this  morning.  They  will  march  by  files  to 
the  Long  Wharf. 

The  43d  and  52d  Regiments,  with  the  remaining  companies  of 
Light  Infantry  and  Grenadiers,  to  parade  at  the  same  time,  with 
the  sa*me  directions,  and  march  to  the  North  Battery.  The  47th 
Regiment  and  1st  Battalion  of  Marines  will  also  march,  as  above 
directed,  to  the  North  Battery,  after  the  rest  are  embarked,  and  be 
ready  to  embark  there  when  ordered. 


EMBARKATION  AND  LANDING  OF  THE  ENEMY.    33 

The  rest  of  the  troops  will  be  kept  in  readiness  to  embark  at  a 
moment's  warning. 

One  subaltern,  one  sergeant,  one  corporal,  one  drummer,  and 
twenty  privates  to  be  left  by  each  corps  for  the  security  of  their 
respective  encampments. 

Any  man  who  shall  quit  his  rank  on  any  pretence,  or  shall  dare 
to  plunder  or  pillage,  will  be  executed  without  mercy. 

The  Pioneers  of  the  Army  to  parade  immediately  and  march  to 
the  South  Battery,  where  they  will  obey  such  orders  as  they  will 
receive  from  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cleveland. 

The  Light  Dragoons,  mounted,  to  be  sent  immediately  to  the  lines, 
where  they  will  attend  and  obey  the  orders  of  the  officer  command- 
ing there. 

Two  more  to  be  sent  in  like  manner  to  head-quarters. 

Signals  for  the  boats  in  divisions,  moving  to  the  attack  on  the 
rebels  intrenched  on  the  heights  of  Charlestown :  Blue  Flag  to 
advance  ;  Yellow,  to  lay  on  oars  ;   Red,  to  land." 

At  noon,  when  it  would  seem  that  the  provincials  ceased  to 
work  on  the  redoubt,  twenty-eight  barges,  formed  in  two 
parallel  lines,  left  the  end  of  Long  Wharf,  and  made  for  Moul- 
ton's  Point,  the  most  feasible  and  best  protected  landing- 
place.  The  barges  were  crowded  with  British  troops  of  the 
5  th,  38th,  43d,  and  5  2d  battalions  of  infantry,  two  companies 
of  grenadiers,  and  ten  of  light-infantry.  These  troops  were 
all  splendidly  appointed,  with  glittering  firelocks  and  bay- 
onets, but  sadly  encumbered  for  the  hot  work  before  them  and 
the  hot  sun  over  them,  by  their  arms  and  ammunition  ;  and  it 
would  seem  by  the  statement  of  their  own  historian,  Sted- 
man,  that  they  carried  a  hundred  pounds  of  provision, 
intended  to  last  for  three  days.  Their  regular  and  uniform 
appearance,  with  six  pieces  of  ordnance  shining  in  the  bows  of 
the  leading  barges,  presented  an  imposing  and  alarming  spec- 
tacle to  our  raw  soldiery.  Some  of  the  regulars  that  had 
lately  arrived  had  been  retained  on  board  of  the  transports, 
on  account  of  the  crowded  state  of  Boston.  A  portion  of 
these  were  landed  for  the  first  time  at  Charlestown,  and  the 
first  spot  of  American  soil  upon  which  many  of  them  trod 
gave  them  their  graves. 

5 


34  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]    HILL. 

The  officers  were  all  men  of  experience  and  valor.  Gen- 
erals Howe  and  Pigot,  Colonels  Nesbit,  Abercrombie,  and 
Clarke,  Majors  Butler,  Williams,  Bruce,  Spendlove,  Smelt, 
Mitchell,  Pitcairn,  Short,  Small,  and  Lord  Rawdon,  were  the 
most  distinguished.  Captain  Addison,  allied  to  the  author  of 
the  "  Spectator,"  had  arrived  in  Boston  on  the  day  preceding 
the  battle,  and  had  then  received  an  invitation  to  dine  with 
General  Burgoyne  on  the  17th,  when  a  far  different  expe- 
rience awaited  him,  for  he  was  numbered  among  the  slain. 

This  detachment  landed  at  Moulton's  Point  about  one  o'clock, 
defended  by  the  shipping  and  wholly  unmolested.  They  soon 
discovered  an  egregious  and  provoking  act  of  carelessness  on 
the  part  of  their  Master  of  Ordnance,  in  sending  over  cannon- 
balls  too  large  for  the  pieces.  These  were  at  once  returned 
to  Boston,  and  were  not  replaced  in  season  for  the  first  action. 
At  the  same  time  General  Howe,  the  commander  of  the 
detachment,  requested  of  General  Gage  a  reinforcement, 
which  he  judged  to  be  requisite  the  moment  that  he  had  a 
fair  view  of  the  elevated  and  formidable  position  of  the  pro- 
vincials, as  seen  from  the  Point. 

While  these  messages  were  passing,  some  of  the  British 
soldiers,  stretched  at  their  ease  upon  the  grass,  ate  in  peace 
their  last  meal,  refreshing  their  thirst  from  large  tubs  of 
invigorating  drinks,  —  a  tantalizing  sight  to  the  hungry  and 
thirsty  provincials.  About  two  o'clock  the  reinforcement 
landed  at  Madlin's  ship-yard,  about  the  middle  of  the  present 
Navy  Yard  water-front.  It  consisted  of  the  47th  battalion  of 
infantry,  a  battalion  of  marines,  and  some  more  companies  of 
grenadiers  and  light-infantry.  The  whole  number  of  the 
British  troops  who  were  engaged  in  the  course  of  the  action 
did  not  fall  short  of,  and  perhaps  exceeded,  5,000.  In  con- 
nection with  this  force,  so  far  exceeding  that  of  the  provin- 
cials in  numbers,  and  so  immeasurably  superior  in  discipline 
and  military  appointments,  we  are  to  consider  the  marines 
in  the  ships  which  cannonaded  three  points  of  the  Hill,  and 
the  six-gun  battery  on  Copp's  Hill,  as  engaging  in  the  unequal 


A  PROVINCIAL  OUTWORK. 


35 


contest  Contrasting  a  British  regular  with  a  provincial  sol- 
dier, we  are  accustomed  to  ascribe  immense  advantages  of 
discipline  to  the  former.  Yet  we  are  to  remember  that  an 
overpowering  superiority  of  character  and  of  cause  was  on 
the  side  of  the  latter.  If  we  could  have  followed  a  recruiting 
sergeant  of  Great  Britain  at  that  time,  as  he  hunted  out  from 
dram-shops  and  the  haunts  of  idleness  and  vice  the  low  and 
depraved  inebriate,  the  lawless  and  dissolute  spendthrift, 
seeing  how  well  the  sergeant  knew  where  to  look  for  his 
recruits,  we  should  have  known  how  much  discipline  could  do 
for  them,  and  how  much  it  must  leave  undone.  The  provin- 
cials were  not  acquainted  with  the  terms  and  forms  of  military- 
tactics.  But  they  knew  the  difference  between  half-cock  and 
double-cock ;  and  the  more  they  hated  the  vermin  which  they 
had  been  wont  to  hunt  with  their  fowling-pieces,  the  straighter 
did  the  bullet  speed  from  the  muzzle.  But  their  superiority 
consisted  in  the  kind  of  pay  which  engaged  them  in  their 
ranks,  not  in  pounds  and  shillings,  but  in  a  free  land,  a  happy 
home,  laws  of  their  own  making,  and  rulers  of  their  own 
choice. 

A    PROVINCIAL    OUTWORK. 

While  the  British  troops  were  forming  their  lines,  a  slight 
work  was  constructed,  principally  by  the  Connecticut  troops, 
sent  by  Prescott  from  the  redoubt,  under  Captain  Knowlton, 
which  proved  of  essential  service  to  the  provincials.  A 
double  rail-fence,  under  a  small  part  of  which  a  stone-wall 
was  piled  to  the  height  of  about  two  feet,  ran  from  the  road 
which  crossed  the  level  between  Bunker's  and  Breed's  Hills, 
towards  the  shore  of  the  Mystic,  with  a  few  apple-trees  on 
each  side  of  it.  The  provincials  pulled  up  some  other  fence 
material  near  by,  and  set  it  in  a  line  parallel  with  this,  filling 
the  space  between  with  the  fresh-mown  hay  on  the  ground. 
The  length  of  this  slight  defence  was  about  700  feet.  It  was 
about  600  feet  in  rear  of  the  redoubt  and  breastwork,  and, 
had  it  been  on  a  line  with  them,  would  have  left  a  space  of 


36  THE    BATTLE    OF    BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]    HILL. 

about  100  feet  between  the  ends  of  the  earthen  and  the 
wooden  and  hay  defences.  Thus  there  was  an  opening  of 
about  700  feet  on  the  slope  of  the  hill  between  the  intrench- 
ments  and  the  rail-fence,  which  the  provincials  had  not  time 
to  secure.  Part  of  this  intervening  space  was  sloughy ;  and 
as  there  were  no  means  of  defending  it,  save  a  few  scattered 
trees,  the  troops  behind  the  breastwork,  as  we  shall  soon  see, 
were  exposed  to  a  galling  fire  from  the  enemy,  on  the  third 
assault,  which  largely  contributed  to  the  unfavorable  result  of 
the  conflict.  The  six  pieces  of  British  artillery  were  stationed 
at  first  upon  Moulton's  Hill. 

THE   SUSPENSE. 

All  these  preparations,  visible  as  they  were  to  thousands 
of  persons  from  hill-top,  steeples,  and  roofs,  were  watched 
with  the  intensest  anxiety.  The  common  persuasion  and 
apprehension  were  that  General  Gage  would  himself  lead  a 
portion,  if  not  the  whole,  of  the  residue  of  his  army,  in  an 
attack  upon  some  other  point  in  the  semicircle.  The  heavy 
cannonading  of  Roxbury  was  designed  to  detain  the  forces 
there,  so  that  they  should  not  be  of  service  for  Charlestown. 
A  schooner,  with  500  or  600  men,  was  directed  to  the  Cam- 
bridge shore,  but  wind  and  tide  proved  unfavorable.  In  fear 
of  these  movements,  great  caution  was  necessary  in  the  at- 
tempt to  send  reinforcements  to  Breed's  Hill.  Captain 
Callender  ivas  ordered  there  with  his  artillery.  Gardiner's, 
Patterson's,  and  Doolittle's  regiments  were  stationed  at  differ- 
ent points  between  Charlestown  Neck  and  Cambridge.  This 
Neck,  though  frequently  crossed  by  our  officers  and  men  in 
single  file,  was  fearfully  hazardous  during  the  whole  day,  as 
it  was  raked  by  a  fire  of  round,  bar,  and  chain  shot  from  the 
"  Glasgow "  and  two  gondolas  near  the  shore.  Some  rein- 
forcements arrived  from  Medford  before  the  engagement, 
though  General  Stark  had  led  them  very  moderately,  insist- 
ing that  "  one  fresh  man  in  battle  is  worth  ten  fatigued  ones." 
General  Putnam  stopped  a  part  of  them  to  unite  with  a  de- 


THE   SUSPENSE. 


37 


tachment  from  the  redoubt  in  attempting  to  fortify  Bunker's 
Hill,  which  was  of  supreme  consequence  to  the  provincials  if 
they  should  be  driven  from  Breed's  Hill.  Stark,  with  oaths 
and  encouragements,  led  on  the  remainder  to  the  rail-fence. 
It  does  not  appear  that  much  if  any  relief  was  sent  during  the 
day  in  food  or  drink  to  the  overtasked  force  in  the  redoubt. 

It  soon  became  a  matter  of  urgency  to  the  provincials  to 
seek  the  utmost  possible  help  from  their  artillery.  But  it 
amounted  to  very  little.  A  few  ineffectual  shots  had  been 
fired  from  Gridley's  pieces  on  the  redoubt,  against  Copp's 
Hill  and  the  shipping,  when  the  pieces  were  removed  and 
planted  with  Captain  Calender's,  in  the  unprotected  space 
between  the  fence  and  the  breastwork.  Here  they  would 
have  been  of  some  service  in  defending  our  weakest  and  most 
exposed  point.  But  the  officers  and  the  companies  who  had 
them  in  charge  were  wholly  unskilled  in  their  management ; 
and,  on  the  plea  of  having  unsuitable  cartridges,  Callender  was 
drawing  off  the  pieces  to  prepare  ammunition,  when  Putnam 
urged  him  to  restore  them  to  their  position.  They  were  fired 
a  few  times,  and  soon  afterwards  were  moved  by  Captain 
Ford  to  the  rail-fence. 

General  Pomeroy,  at  Cambridge,  old  as  he  was,  was  stirred 
like  the  war-horse  at  the  smell  of  the  battle.  He  begged  a 
horse  of  General  Ward,  that  he  might  ride  to  Charlestown  ; 
but,  on  reaching  the  Neck,  and  observing  the  hot  fire  which 
raked  it,  he  was  afraid  to  risk  the  borrowed  animal.  Giving 
him  then  in  charge  to  a  sentry,  he  walked  on  to  the  rail-fence, 
where  his  well-known  form  and  countenance  called  forth  en- 
thusiastic shouts.  Colonel  Little  came  up  with  his  regiment, 
and  the  men  were  stationed  along  the  line,  from  the  rail-fence 
to  a  cart-way  on  the  left.  There  were  also  reinforcements  of 
about  300  troops  each  from  Brewer's,  Nixon's,  Woodbridge's, 
and  Doolittle's  regiments,  detachments  of  which  were  sta- 
tioned along  the  Main  Street,  in  Charlestown.  Colonel 
Scammans,  who  was  deprived  of  sense  and  courage,  either  by 
confusion  or  fear,  had  been  ordered  by  Ward  to  go  where  the 


38  THE    BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]   HILL. 

fighting  was.  He  went  to  Lechmere's  Point,  East  Cam- 
bridge, understanding,  as  he  said,  that  the  enemy  were  land- 
ing there.  He  was  advised  to  go  to  the  Hill.  He  chose  to 
understand  the  nearest  hill,  and  so  he  posted  himself  on  Cob- 
ble Hill,  where  now  stand  the  Appleton  Wards  of  the  Mc- 
Lean Asylum,  and  occupied  that  useless  position.  General 
Warren  arrived  just  before  the  action.  Putnam  endeavored 
to  dissuade  him  from  entering  it ;  but  Warren  could  not  be 
thus  wrought  upon.  He  said  he  came  only  as  a  volunteer, 
and  instead  of  seeking  a  place  of  safety,  wished  to  know 
where  the  onset  would  be  most  furious.  Putnam  pointed  to 
the  redoubt  as  the  critical  place.  Prescott  there  offered  to 
receive  Warren's  orders  ;  but  he  repeated  that  he  was  happy 
to  serve  as  a  volunteer. 

The  tune  of  "  Yankee  Doodle,"  which  afforded  the  British 
so  much  sport  as  ridiculing  the  provincials,  was  the  tune  by 
which  our  fathers  were  led  on  to  the  contest.  Let  their  ex- 
ample commend  to  us  this  only  way  of  depriving  ridicule  of 
its  sting,  for  there  is  nothing  which  it  so  much  annoys  men 
to  spend  in  vain  as  their  scorn. 

Before  the  engagement  began,  Captain  Walker,  of  Chelms- 
ford, led  a  band  of  about  fifty  resolute  men  down  into  Charles- 
town  to  annoy  the  enemy's  left  flank.  They  did  great 
execution,  and  then  abandoned  their  dangerous  position,  to 
attack  the  right  flank  on  Mystic  River.  Here  the  Captain 
was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  He  died  of  his  wounds  in 
Boston  jail. 

THE  FIRST  ASSAULT,   AND    ITS   REPULSE. 

The  British,  in  their  attack,  aimed  at  two  distinct  objects: 
first,  to  force  and  carry  the  redoubt ;  second,  to  turn  the  left 
flank  of  the  provincials,  and  to  cut  off  their  retreat.  To  ac- 
complish the  former,  General  Pigot,  who  commanded  the 
British  left  wing,  displayed  under  cover  of  the  eastern  slope 
of  the  Hill,  and  advanced  against  the  redoubt  and  breastwork. 


THE   FIRST  ASSAULT,   AND   ITS   REPULSE.  39 

General  Howe  led  the  right  wing,  which  advanced,  angularly, 
along  the  shore  of  the  Mystic  toward  the  rail-fence.  The 
artillery  prepared  the  way  for  the  infantry ;  and  it  was  at  this 
time  that  the  blunder  of  the  oversized  balls  was  a  great  griev- 
ance to  the  enemy,  as  they  had  but  a  few  rounds  of  proper 
shot. 

It  was  of  vital  necessity  that  every  charge  of  powder  and 
ball  spent  by  the  Americans  should  take  effect.  There  was 
none  for  waste.  Some  of  the  very  last  charges  fired  by  them 
on  that  day  had  been  snatched  from  the  cartridge-boxes  of 
their  dead  or  wounded  foes  by  a  few  venturesome  individuals 
who  had  got  out  of  the  precious  article.  The  provincial  offi- 
cers commanded  their  men  to  withhold  their  fire  till  the  enemy 
were  within  eight  rods,  and,  when  they  could  see  the  whites 
of  their  eyes,  to  aim  at  their  waist-bands  ;  also,  "  to  aim  at 
the  handsome  coats,  and  pick  off  the  commanders."  As  the 
British  left  wing  came  within  gunshot,  the  men  in  the  redoubt 
could  scarcely  restrain  their  fire,  and  a  few  discharged  their 
pieces.  Prescott,  indignant  at  this  disobedience,  vowed  instant 
death  to  any  one  who  should  repeat  it,  and  promised,  by  the 
confidence  which  they  reposed  in  him,  to  give  the  command 
at  the  proper  moment.  His  lieutenant-colonel,  Robinson, 
ran  round  the  top  of  the  works  and  knocked  up  the  levelled 
muskets.  When  the  space  between  the  redoubt  and  the 
assailants  was  narrowed  to  the  appointed  span,  the  word  was 
spoken  at  the  moment.  The  deadly  flashes  burst  forth,  and 
the  green  grass  was  crimsoned  by  the  life-blood  of  hundreds. 
The  front  rank  of  the  assailants  was  nearly  obliterated,  as 
were  its  successive  substitutes,  as  the  Americans  were  well 
protected,  and  had  been  so  deliberate  in  their  aim.  The 
enemy  fell  like  the  tall  grass  before  the  practised  sweep  of 
the  mower.  General  Pigot  was  obliged  to  give  the  word  for 
a  retreat.  Some  of  the  wounded  were  seen  crawling  with  the 
last  energies  of  life  from  the  gory  heap  of  the  dying  and  the 
dead,  among  whom  the  officers,  in  their  proportion,  largely 
outnumbered  the  privates.    As  the  wind  rolled  away  the  suffo- 


40  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 

eating  smoke,  and  the  blasts  of  artillery  and  musketry  for  a 
few  minutes  ceased,  the  awful  spectacle,  the  agonizing  yells 
and  shrieks  of  the  sufferers,  were  distracting  and  piercing 
The  insanity  of  war  never  had  a  more  full  demonstration  than 
in  that  scene,  when  a  corps  of  mercenaries  that  had  crossed 
the  ocean  in  the  service  of  a  foreign  despotism,  with  as  little 
intelligence  as  beasts,  and  with  no  conscience  whatever,  were 
pitting  themselves  in  vain  efforts  to  wrest  from  men  the  heri- 
tage of  country  and  freedom  to  which  they  were  born,  or  which 
they  had  made  their  own  by  the  desert  of  earning  it  and 
knowing  how  to  improve  it.  Prayers  and  groans,  foul,  impi- 
ous oaths,  and  fond  invocations  of  the  loved  and  dear,  were 
mingled  into  sounds,  which  seemed  scarcely  of  human  utter- 
ance, by  the  rapturous  shouts  of  a  vengeful  joy  which  rang 
from  the  redoubt.  This  earth  has  not  a  sight  nor  a  sound 
more  maddening  in  its  passion  or  its  woe  than  that  which 
only  a  battle-field  yields  to  soldier  or  to  man.  Hell  then 
gushes  forth  from  its  prison  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  and 
the  dark  passions  of  the  breast,  and  covers  the  fair  surface 
of  the  ground  with  the  flames  and  yells  of  demoniac  strife. 

While  such  was  the  temporary  fortune  of  the  field  near  the 
redoubt,  General  Howe,  with  the  right  wing,  made  for  the 
rail-fence,  where  Putnam,  assisted  by  Captain  Ford's  company, 
had  posted  the  artillery  with  promise  of  advantage.  Here,  as 
at  the  redoubt,  some  of  the  provincials  had  been  tempted  to 
discharge  their  muskets  while  the  advancing  enemy  paused 
to  destroy  a  fence  which  obstructed  their  progress.  Putnam, 
with  an  oath,  threatened  to  cut  down  with  his  sword  the  next 
offender  who  dared  to  risk  the  waste  of  another  musket-charge. 
The  word  was  given  when  the  enemy  were  within  eight  rods. 
The  artillery  had  already  made  a  lane  through  the  advancing 
column,  and  now  the  fowling-pieces  mowed  down  their  vic- 
tims, especially  the  officers,  with  fatal  celerity.  The  strong 
lungs  of  Major  McClary  raised  the  voice  of  encouragement 
above  the  roar  of  the  cannon.  The  assailants  were  compelled 
to  retreat,  leaving  behind  them  heaps  of  the  fallen ;  while  some 


THE  SECOND  ASSAULT,  AND  ITS  REPULSE. 


41 


of  the  flying  even  rushed  to  their  boats,  as  if  for  the  security 
of  another  element.  The  British  artillery  had  been  sloughed 
among  the  brick-kilns,  besides  lacking  proper  shot,  and  so 
could  do  but  little.  The  regulars  did  not  take  aim,  and  thus 
their  discharge  passed  high  above  the  heads  of  the  provincials. 
The  trees  around  were  afterwards  observed  with  their  trunks 
unscathed,  while  their  branches  had  been  riddled  by  bullets. 
The  passionate  shout  of  victory  echoed  from  the  fence  to  that 
from  the  redoubt,  and  even  the  coward  was  nerved  to  daring. 
Now  it  was  that  our  troops  and  our  cause  suffered  from  the 
want  of  discipline,  and  from  the  confusion  apparent  in  the 
whole  management  of  the  action,  originating  in  the  extem- 
porized and  imperfect  preparation,  and  in  the  baffling  secrecy 
of  the  purposes  of  the  enemy.  The  neck  of  land,  ploughed 
by  the  incessant  volleys  from  the  ships,  and  clouded  by  the 
dust  thus  raised,  was  an  almost  insuperable  barrier  to  the 
bringing  on  of  reinforcements.  Major  Gridley,  wholly  lack- 
ing in  spirit  and  skill,  had  been  put  in  command  of  a  battalion 
of  infantry,  in  compliment  to  his  father.  He  lost,  and  could 
not  recover,  his  self-possession  and  courage.  Though  ordered 
to  the  Hill,  he  advanced  towards  Charles  town,  slowly  and 
timidly  ;  and,  though  urged  by  Colonel  Frye  to  hasten,  he 
was  satisfied  with  the  scant  service  of  firing  3-pounders  from 
Cobble  Hill  upon  the  "  Glasgow  "  frigate.  His  captain,  Trevett, 
refused  obedience  to  such  weakness,  and  ordered  his  men  to 
follow  him  to  the  works.  Colonel  Gerrish,  with  his  artillery 
on  Bunker's  Hill,  could  neither  be  urged  nor  intimidated  by 
Putnam  to  bring  his  pieces  to  the  rail-fence.  He  was  un- 
wieldy by  corpulence,  and  overcome  with  heat  and  fatigue. 
His  men  had  been  scattered  from  the  summit  of  Bunker's 
Hill,  where  the  enemy's  shot  had  taken  tremendous  effect,  as 
it  was  supposed  to  be  strongly  fortified. 

THE   SECOND   ASSAULT,   AND    ITS    REPULSE. 

The  enemy  rallied  for  a  second  attack.     Though  they  had 
sorely  suffered,  and  some  few  of  the  officers  were  reluctant  to 

6 


42  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]    HILL. 

renew  the  fatal  effort,  the  large  body,  like  the  General,  would 
have  yielded  to  death  in  any  form  of  horror  before  they  would 
have  allowed  a  return  to  be  carried  to  England  that  they 
had  given  up  the  contested  field  to  those  whom  they  had 
always  described  as  cowards.  At  this  crisis  400  fresh  men 
came  over  from  Boston  to  repair  the  British  loss,  and  Dr. 
Jeffries,  of  Boston,  accompanied  them  as  surgeon.  The  regu- 
lars, a  second  time,  steadily  advanced,  and,  with  the  stoic 
apathy  induced  by  a  battle-field,  they  even  piled  up  the  bodies 
of  their  slaughtered  comrades  as  breastworks  for  their  own 
protection.  Their  artillery  was  now  drawn  up  by  the  road 
which  divided  the  tongue  of  land  on  the  Mystic  from  the 
Hill,  to  within  900  feet  of  the  rail-fence.  The  object  was 
to  bring  it  on  a  line  with  the  redoubt,  and  to  open  a  way  for 
the  infantry.  It  was  during  this  second  assault  that  Charles- 
town  was  set  on  fire.  Probably  a  double  purpose  was  intended 
in  this  act :  first,  that  the  smoke  might  cover  the  advance  of 
the  enemy ;  and  second,  to  dislodge  some  of  the  provincials, 
who,  from  the  shelter  of  the  houses,  had  annoyed  the  British 
left  wing.  General  Howe  sent  over  to  Burgoyne  and  Clinton 
the  order  to  fire  the  town  ;  and  the  order  was  fulfilled  by  car- 
casses thrown  from  Copp's  Hill,  which,  aided  by  some  marines 
who  landed  from  the  "  Somerset,"  completed  the  work  of  deso- 
lation. The  fall  of  the  meeting-house  spire  made  a  transient 
spectacle.  The  old  sites,  where  the  first  settlers  reared  their 
common  block-house  for  their  worship,  their  stores,  and  their 
defence,  on  the  old  town  hill,  over  200  dwellings,  among  them 
that  of  the  founder  of  the  wilderness  College,  and  the  library 
of  Dr.  Mather,  shared  in  the  ruin. 

The  provincials  were  prepared,  at  least  in  heart  and  pluck, 
for  the  renewed  attack.  They  had  orders  to  reserve  their  fire 
till  the  enemy  were  within  six  rods,  and  then  to  take  deadly 
aim.  As  before,  the  shot  of  the  enemy  was  mostly  ineffectual, 
ranging  far  above  the  heads  of  the  provincials.  Still,  some 
of  our  privates  fell,  and  Colonels  Brewer,  Nixon,  and  Buck- 
minster,  and  Major  Moore,  were  wounded,  the  last  mortally, 


THE   SECOND  ASSAULT,  AND   ITS   REPULSE.  43 

crying  out  in  his  death-thirst  for  water,  which  could  not  be 
obtained  nearer  than  the  Neck,  whither  two  of  his  men  went 
to  seek  it.  The  British  stood  for  a  time,  the  moments  of 
which  were  hours,  the  deadly  discharge  which  was  poured 
upon  them  as  they  passed  the  measured  line,  while  whole 
ranks,  officers  and  men,  fell  in  heaps.  General  Howe  stood 
in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  wrought  up  to  a  desperate  deter- 
mination. For  a  time  he  was  almost  alone,  his  aids-de-camp, 
and  many  other  officers  of  his  staff,  lying  wounded  or  dead. 
But  though  he  would  not  lead  a  second  retreat,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  follow  it,  and  to  hear  the  renewed  shout  of  victory 
from  the  patriot  band  who  had  weighed  the  choice  between 
death  and  subjection.  Thus  the  British  were  twice  fairly  and 
completely  driven  from  the  Hill.  There  were  at  the  time 
candid  and  generous  men  in  their  army  on  the  spot,  and 
others  who  from  Boston  were  watching  with  their  glasses 
every  incident  of  the  action,  who  made  the  deserved  acknowl- 
edgment to  the  prowess  of  the  provincials,  in  admitting  the 
repeated  repulse  of  the  assailants.  Men  of  the  same  mag- 
nanimity in  England,  after  possessing  themselves  of  the  facts 
as  thoroughly  as  possible  from  the  information  transmitted, 
and  from  interviews  with  mutilated  victims  of  the  engage- 
ment, also  paid  the  same  tribute  to  the  defenders  of  their 
native  soil.  But  these  concessions  of  candor  to  the  demands 
of  truth  were  exceptional.  The  transition  was  too  violent 
from  what  had  been  the  estimate  and  report  of  the  courage  and 
military  efficiency  of  the  provincials,  to  a  readiness  to  admit, ' 
unreduced  and  uncolored,  the  actual  incidents  of  the  day. 
Contemporary  and  even  more  recent  English  histories  give 
wholly  inadequate  representations.  Even  Burke  —  if,  as  is 
probable,  he  wrote  the  account  in  the  "  Annual  Register  "  — 
recognizes  only  one  repulse,  and  this  only  in  allowing  that  the 
regulars  "  were  thrown  into  some  disorder." 


44  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 


THE   THIRD   ASSAULT,   AND   ITS  SUCCESS. 

But  now  the  fortunes  of  the  day  were  to  be  reversed,  so 
far,  and  so  far  only,  as  to  attach  the  bare  name  of  victory  to 
the  side  of  the  assailants,  and  to  give  them  the  possession  of 
a  field  which  would  have  been  scarce  too  large  for  the  burial 
of  their  fallen  comrades.  The  provincials  encouraged  them- 
selves with  the  hope  that  the  two  repulses  which  had  com- 
pelled the  regulars  to  retire  with  such  loss  would  deter  them 
from  a  renewed  attack.  At  least,  it  seemed  as  if  there  might 
be  such  a  protraction  of  the  issue  as  would  allow  of  recupera- 
tion and  reinforcement  of  the  men  and  the  works  on  the  Hill. 
It  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  provincials  that  some  of  the 
British  officers  did  remonstrate  against  leading  their  men  to 
another  butchery,  but  their  remonstrance  was  disdainfully 
repelled  by  others.  During  the  second  assault,  a  provincial, 
with  incautious  loudness  of  speech,  had  declared  that  the 
ammunition  was  exhausted,  and  he  had  been  overheard  by 
some  of  the  regulars.  General  Clinton,  who  from  Copp's 
Hill  had  witnessed  the  two  repulses  of  His  Majesty's  troops 
with  burning  mortification,  took  a  boat  and  crossed  the 
Charles  as  a  volunteer,  bringing  with  him  added  reinforce- 
ments. A  new  method  of  attack  was  now  determined  upon. 
General  Howe  having  discovered  that  weak  point,  the  space 
between  the  breastwork  and  the  rail-fence,  now  led  the  left 
wing,  and  resolved  to  apply  the  main  strength  of  the  assault 
against  the  redoubt  and  the  breastwork,  particularly  to  rake 
the  latter  with  the  artillery  from  the  left,  while  he  disguised 
this  purpose  by  a  feigned  show  of  force  at  the  rail-fence. 

The  regulars  now  divested  themselves  of  their  heavy  knap- 
sacks, some  of  them  even  of  their  coats.  They  were  ordered 
to  stand  the  fire  of  the  provincials,  and  then  to  make  a  reso- 
lute charge  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  The  three  facts  last 
mentioned,  viz.,  the  knowledge  by  the  enemy  that  the  pro- 
vincials had  spent  their  ammunition,  the  encouragement  at 


THE   THIRD  ASSAULT,   AND  ITS   SUCCESS. 


45 


the  presence  of  General  Clinton,  and  the  discovery  of  the 
weak  point  in  the  defences,  all  contributed  to  nerve  the 
British  to  a  third  effort. 

While  these  hostile  preparations  were  in  progress,  the  little 
band  of  devoted  patriots, —  Prescott  afterwards  said  that  less 
than  200  men  were  left  in  the  redoubt,  -—  exhausted  almost  to 
complete  prostration  by  their  long  and  unrefreshed  toil  of  the 
night  and  the  bloody  work  of  the  noonday,  had  time  to  sum- 
mon their  remaining  energies,  to  resolve  that  the  last  blow 
should  be  the  heaviest,  to  think  upon  the  glory  of  their  cause, 
and  the  laurels  they  should  for  ever  wear.  The  few  remaining 
rounds  of  powder  were  distributed  by  Prescott  himself.  The 
very  few  and  favored  men  whose  muskets  were  furnished  with 
bayonets  —  and  there  were  not  fifty  of  them  —  stood  ready  to 
repel  the  charge  to  the  utmost ;  and  those  who  were  without 
this  defence,  as  well  as  without  ammunition,  resolved  to  club 
their  muskets  and  wield  their  heavy  stocks,  while  the  ferocity 
of  despair  strung  every  nerve.  Even  the  loose  stones  of  the 
intrenchments  were  gladly  secured  as  the  last  stay  of  an 
unflinching  resolution. 

A  body  of  reinforcements,  fresh  and  resolute,  and  provided 
with  bayonets,  might  even  then  have  forced  the  regulars  to  a 
third  and  final  retreat ;  but,  as  before  remarked,  unavoidable 
confusion  prevailed  in  the  American  camp.  The  Neck  of 
land,  the  only  line  of  communication,  wore  a  terrible  aspect 
to  raw  recruits,  who  had  to  dodge  the  missiles  as  they  passed 
over  it,  and  could  at  best  transport  only  their  own  bodies. 
General  Ward  was  without  staff  -officers  to  convey  orders.  The 
regiments  which  had  been  stationed  along  the  route,  to  wait 
further  commands,  were  overlooked.  Colonel  Gardiner,  though 
thus  left  without  orders,  panting  to  join  the  strife,  led  300 
men  to  Bunker's  Hill,  where  Putnam  first  set  them  upon 
intrenching,  but  soon  urged  them  to  action  at  the  lines.  The 
Colonel  commanded  his  men  to  drop  their  tools  and  follow, 
He  was  leading  them  to  the  post  of  dangerous  service  when 
he  received  a  mortal  wound  in  the  groin  from  a  musket-ball. 


46  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 

As  he  was  borne  off  the  field,  he  bade  his  men  to  conquer  or 
die.  Deprived  of  their  leader,  but  few  of  them  engaged  in 
the  action.  His  son,  a  youth  of  nineteen,  met  him  as  he  was 
carried  by,  and,  overcome  with  grief,  sought  to  aid  him,  but  the 
father  commanded  him  to  march  to  his  duty.  Colonel  Scam- 
mans  remained  on  Cobble  Hill,  but  a  detachment  of  Gerrish's 
regiment,  under  their  Danish  adjutant,  Ferbiger,  rushed  tow- 
ard the  fence.  A  few  of  the  Americans  occupied  the  two 
or  three  houses  on  the  slope  of  Breed's  Hill,  and  annoyed,  for 
a  time,  the  left  flank  of  the  enemy. 

The  artillery  of  the  British  effected  its  murderous  purpose, 
raking  the  whole  interior  of  the  breastwork,  driving  its  de- 
fenders into  the  redoubt,  sending  the  balls  there  after  them 
through  the  open  sally-port,  and  reducing  the  area  of  the  con- 
flict. Lieutenant  Prescott,  a  nephew  of  the  commander,  had 
his  arm  disabled,  and  was  told  by  his  uncle  to  content  himself 
with  encouraging  his  men.  But,  having  succeeded  in  loading 
his  musket,  he  was  passing  the  sally-port  to  seek  a  rest  from 
which  to  fire  it,  when  he  was  killed  by  a  cannon-ball.  It  was 
clear  that  the  intrenchments  could  no  longer  be  held ;  but  the 
resolution  to  yield  them  only  in  the  convulsion  of  a  last  effort 
nerved  every  patriot  arm. 

The  British  officers  were  seen  to  goad  on  some  of  their 
reluctant  and  shrinking  men  with  blows  from  their  swords. 
It  was  for  them  now  to  receive  the  fire,  and  to  reserve  their 
own  till  they  could  follow  it  by  a  thrust  of  the  bayonet.  Each 
shot  of  the  provincials  was  true  to  its  aim.  Colonel  Aber- 
crombie,  Majors  Williams  and  Spendlove  fell.  General  Howe 
was  slightly  wounded  in  the  foot.  Hand  to  hand* and  face  to 
face  were  exchanged  the  last  savage  hostilities  of  that  day. 
Only  a  ridge  of  loose-heaped  earth  divided  the  grappling  com- 
batants, whose  feet  were  slipping  in  the  gory  sand,  while  they 
joined  in  the  mortal  strife.  When  the  enemy  found  them- 
selves received  with  stones,  the  missiles  of  a  more  ancient 
warfare,  they  knew  that  their  work  was  nearly  done,  as  they 
now  contended  with  unarmed  men.     Young  Richardson,  of 


THE  THIRD  ASSAULT,   AND  ITS   SUCCESS.  47 

the  Royal  Irish,  was  the  first  who  scaled  the  parapet,  and  he 
fell,  as  did  likewise  the  first  line  of  those  that  mounted  it, 
among  whom  Major  Pitcairn,  who  had  shed  the  first  blood  at 
Lexington,  was  shot  by  a  negro  soldier.  It  was  only  when 
the  redoubt  was  crowded  by  the  enemy  and  the  defenders  in 
one  promiscuous  throng,  and  fresh  assailants  were  on  all  sides 
poi.ring  into  it,  that  Prescott,  no  less,  but  even  more,  a  hero, 
whan  he  spoke  the  reluctant  word,  ordered  a  retreat.  A 
longer  struggle  would  have  been  folly,  not  courage.  Some  of 
the  men  had  splintered  their  musket-stocks  in  fierce  blows  ; 
nearly  all  were  defenceless,  yet  was  there  that  left  within 
them,  in  a  dauntless  soul,  which  might  still  help  their  country 
at  its  need.  The  few  exceptional  cases  of  cowardice  or  weak- 
ness, which  presented  themselves  as  the  catastrophe  closed, 
demand  no  apology,  no  mention  even,  when  no  one  could 
merit  the  epithet  of  craven  who  had  stood  as  more  than  an 
onlooker  through  that  day. 

Prescott  gave  the  crowning  proof  of  his  devoted  and  mag- 
nanimous spirit,  when  he  cooled  the  heat  of  his  own  brain, 
and  bore  the  bitter  pang  in  his  own  heart,  by  commanding  an 
orderly  and  still  resisting  retreat.  He  was  the  hero  of  that 
blood-dyed  summit,  the  midnight  leader  and  guard,  the 
morning  sentinel,  the  orator  of  the  opening  strife,  the  cool 
and  deliberate  overseer  of  the  whole  struggle,  the  well-skilled 
marksman  of  the  exact  distance  and  the  point  of  aim  at  which 
a  shot  was  certain  death ;  he  was  the  trusted  chief  in  whose 
bright  eye  and  steady  nerve  men  read  their  duty ;  and  when 
conduct,  skill,  and  courage  could  do  no  more,  he  was  the 
merciful  deliverer  of  the  remnant.  Prescott  was  the  hero  of 
the  day,  and  wherever  its  tale  is  told,  let  him  be  its  chieftain. 
Whose  statue  other  than  his  should  grace  the  monumental 
summit  beside,  not  beneath,  that  of  Warren,  the  "Volunteer"  ? 

The  troops  still  left  in  the  redoubt  now  fought  their  strag- 
gling escape  through  the  encircling  enemy,  turning  their  faces 
towards  the  foe,  while  they  retreated  with  backward  steps. 
Gridley,  who  had  planned  and  defended  the  works,  received  a 


48  THE   BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]   HILL. 

wound,  and  was  borne  off.  Warren  was  among"  the  last  to 
leave  the  redoubt,  and  at  a  short  distance  from  it  a  musket- 
ball  through  his  head  killed  him  instantly.  When  the  corpse 
of  that  illustrious  patriot  was  afterwards  identified  by  Dr. 
Jeffries,  General  Howe  thought  that  this  one  victim  well 
repaid  the  loss  of  numbers  of  his  mercenaries.  It  appears 
from  the  recently  published  memoir  of  Dr.  John  Warren, 
the  brother  of  the  General,  and  then  a  young  physician  at 
Salem,  that  it  was  several  days  before  he  was  certified  of  the 
sad  affliction  to  himself.  He  came  to  Cambridge  the  next 
morning,  and  learned  only  that  his  brother  was  missing.  In 
endeavoring  to  pass  a  sentinel  at  the  new  British  lines,  he 
received  from  the  thrust  of  his  bayonet  a  wound  which  he 
bore  through  life. 

It  is  not  strange  that,  both  in  English  and  American  reports 
and  hasty  narratives  of  that  day,  and  in  some  subsequent 
notices  of  it,  Warren  should  have  been  represented  as  the 
commander  of  the  provincial  forces.  His  influence  and  his 
patriotism  were  equally  well  known  to  friend  and  foe.  There 
is  no  more  delicate  task  than  that  of  dividing  among  many 
heroes  the  honors  of  a  battle-field,  and  the  rewards  which  fame 
apportions  for  devoted  services.  Yet  the  high-minded  will 
always  appreciate  the  integrity  of  the  motive  which  seeks 
to  distinguish  between  the  places  and  the  modes  of  service, 
where  those  who  alike  love  their  country  enjoy,  at  their  own 
peril,  the  opportunity  of  winning  the  laurels  of  heroism  and 
devotion.  The  council  chamber  and  the  forum  and  the  high 
place  in  the  public  assembly  offer  to  the  patriot  statesman  the 
scenes  and  occasions  for  securing  remembrance  and  honor  for 
his  name.  The  battle-field  must  retain  the  same  appropriate 
privilege  for  the  patriot  soldier,  whose  skill  and  tactics,  courage 
and  inspiring  fervor,  can  plan  and  guide  a  critical  enterprise, 
for  there  alone  can  he  earn  his  own  wreath.  Let  the  chivalry 
and  the  magnanimity  of  Warren  for  ever  fill  a  brilliant  page  in 
our  revolutionary  history.  But  let  not  a  partial  homage  attach 
to  him  the  especial  honor  to  which  another  has  a  rightful 


THE  THIRD  ASSAULT,  AND  ITS   SUCCESS.  49 

claim.  It  was  no  part  of  his  pure  purpose,  in  mingling  with 
his  countrymen  on  that  hill,  to  monopolize  its  honors,  and  to 
figure  as  its  hero.  It  is  enough  that  he  stood  among  equals, 
without  selfish  rivalry,  in  devotion  and  patriotism.  Let  it  be 
remembered*  that  he  did  not  approve  the  measure  of  thus 
challenging  a  superior  enemy  with  such  insufficient  prepara- 
tion and  means.  The  more  honorable,  therefore,  was  his  self- 
sacrifice  in  giving  the  whole  energy  of  his  will  to  falsify  the 
misgivings  of  his  judgment.  Here,  then,  is  his  claim,  which, 
when  fully  met,  leaves  the  honors  of  that  summit  to  the  mili- 
tary leader  of  the  heroic  band. 

While  such  was  the  issue  at  the  redoubt,  the  left  winff, 
under   Putnam,  aided    by   some   reinforcements   which    had 
arrived  too  late,  was  making  a  vigorous  stand  at  the  rail- 
fence.     But  the  retreat  at  the   redoubt   compelled    the  res- 
olute defenders  to  yield  with  slow  and  reluctant  haltings,  as 
their  flank  was  opened  to  the  enemy.     Putnam  pleaded  and 
cursed, —  a  misuse  of  emphasis  for  which  he  afterwards  hum- 
bled himself  before  his  puritan  church,  —  he  commanded  and 
implored  the  scattering  bands  to  rally,  and  he  vowed  that  he 
would  win  them  the  victory.     His  great  and  absorbing  pur- 
pose through  the  whole  day  was  to  fortify  Bunker's  Hill.    It  is 
doubtful  whe.ther  he  was  at  all  in  the  redoubt  during  the  action, 
though  the  painter  Trumbull,  perhaps  from  Connecticut  parti- 
ality, drew  him  as  the  commander  there.    To  effect  his  object, 
he  passed  and  repassed  between  Cambridge  and  Charlestown, 
sending  for  tools  to  the  redoubt,  and  endeavoring  to  rally  the 
flying,  even  when  there  was  no  longer  a  hope.    So  completely 
was  he  identified  with  the  consuming  zeal  for  fortifying  the 
higher  hill  in  the  rear,  that  the  traditionary  rehearsals  from 
the  lips  of  some  survivors  represented  him  as  on  horseback, 
buried  under  and  surrounded  by  heaps  of  intrenching  tools, 
enough  for  a  cart  load.     His  furious  ardor  may,  or  may  not, 
have  needed  the  control  of  a  cool,  deliberating  judgment,  and 
of  that  prime  essential  of  the  soldier  which  is  called  "conduct." 
His  courage  was  unquestionable.     He  is  here  fairly  presented 

7 


50  THE   BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]  HILL. 

by  the  writer,  according  as  a  careful  examination  of  author- 
ities, and  a  review  of  widely  different  estimates  and  judgments 
of  him  by  others,  assign  to  him  his  share  in  inspiriting  a 
patriotic  enterprise. 

General  Porneroy  likewise  implored  the  disintegrated  forces 
to  rally ;  but  in  vain.  The  last  resistance  at  the  rail-fence 
was  of  the  utmost  service,  as  it  prevented  the  enemy  from 
cutting  off  the  retreat  of  the  provincials  who  straggled  back, 
each,  for  the  most  part,  his  own  leader,  towards  Cambridge. 
Yet  the  enemy  were  in  no  condition  to  pursue,  as  they  were 
alike  exhausted,  and  were  content  with  the  little  patch  of 
ground  which  they  had  so  dearly  purchased.  The  provincials 
retreated  to  Cambridge  by  the  marsh  road,  and  by  the  higher 
route  over  Winter  Hill,  able  to  rescue  only  one  of  the  six  pieces 
of  artillery  which  they  had  brought  to  the  field.  The  battle 
had  occupied  about  two  hours,  the  provincials  retreating  about 
five  o'clock.  The  British  lay  on  their  arms  all  night  at  Bun- 
ker's Hill,  discharging  their  pieces  against  the  Americans,  who 
were  safely  encamped  upon  Prospect  Hill,  at  the  distance  of  a 
mile.  Between  the  two  positions,  at  the  right,  was  a  slight 
elevation,  known  as  Ploughed  Hill,  because  under  cultivation. 
This  was  afterwards  called  Mount  Benedict,  as  the  site  of  the 
Ursuline  Convent,  and  has  a  humiliating  history.  Ploughed 
Hill  and  Prospect  Hill  are  now  both  reducing  their  summits 
to  raise  the  adjacent  low  lands. 

Prescott,  with  garments  pierced  and  rent,  hastened  to  head- 
quarters to  make  return  of  the  orders  he  had  received.  He 
was  indignant  at  the  loss  of  the  ground,  and  implored  General 
Ward  to  commit  to  him  three  fresh  regiments,  promising  that 
with  them  he  would  at  once  win  back  what  had  been  sacri- 
ficed. But  he  had  already  honorably  done  all  that  his  country 
might  demand  of  him  in  that  first  trial.  He  bitterly  com- 
plained that  the  reinforcements,  which  might  have  given  to 
his  triumph  the  completeness  of  a  victory,  had  failed  him. 
A  year  afterwards,  when  he  was  in  the  American  camp  at 
New  York,  he  was  informed  how  narrowly  he  had  escaped 


THE  RECKONING.  ex 

with  his  life.  A  British  sergeant  who  was  brought  into  the 
camp,  on  meeting  there  with  Prescott,  called  him  by  name. 
Prescott  inquired  how  or  where  he  had  known  him.  The 
man  replied  that  he  knew  him  well,  and  that  his  acquaintance 
began  at  the  battle  in  Charlestown.  Prescott  had  there  been 
pointed  out  to  him  as  the  commander,  and  in  the  first  two  acts 
had  been  singled  out  by  him  with  a  deliberate  aim.  Though 
Prescott's  position  at  each  time  was  such  as  to  convince  the 
sergeant  that  the  shot  would  be  fatal,  he  was  unharmed. 
On  the  third  assault,  impelled  by  the  same  purpose,  he  had 
charged  Prescott  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet ;  but  the  strong 
arm  and  the  sword  of  the  commander  thrust  aside  the  weapon, 
and  the  baffled  sergeant  judged  him  to  be  invulnerable. 

THE    RECKONING. 

The  number  of  the  provincials  in  the  whole  action  of  the 
day,  including  the  occasional  reinforcements,  and  those  who 
came  only  to  cover  the  retreat,  did  not  exceed  4,000.  Of  these 
115  were  killed,  305  were  wounded,  and  30  were  taken  pris- 
oners, making  our  whole  loss  450.  Prescott's  regiment  suffered 
most  severely. 

The  whole  British  loss  was  estimated  by  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress, on  their  best  information,  at  1,500,  and  as  returned  by 
Gage,  was  1,054,  among  them  13  commissioned  officers  killed, 
and  70  wounded.  Of  the  killed  were  1  lieutenant-colonel, 
2  majors,  and  7  captains.  Loud  and  agonizing  was  the  wail- 
ing in  Boston,  when  through  that  night  and  all  the  next 
Sunday  boats,  drays,  and  stretchers,  and  all  the  means  of 
transport,  were  put  to  service  to  carry  the  wounded  and  the 
dying  from  the  fearful  scene.  The  hospitals  were  crowded 
with  the  sufferers,  and  many  places  designed  for  quite  other 
purposes  were  put  to  that  exigent  use.  The  sympathies  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town  were  engaged  alike  for  friends 
and  foes.  The  following  brief  extract  from  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Grant,  one  of  the  surgeons  of  the  British  army  in  Boston,  to 
a  friend  in  Westminster,  written  on  the  sixth  day  after  the 


52  THE   BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]   HILL. 

battle,  revives  the  realities  of  the  occasion.  "  I  have  scarce 
had  time  sufficient  to  eat  my  meals,  therefore  you  must  expect 
but  a  few  lines.  I  have  been  up  two  nights,  assisted  by  four 
mates,  dressing  our  men  of  the  wounds  they  received  the  last 
engagement.  Many  of  the  wounded  are  daily  dying,  and 
many  must  have  both  legs  amputated.  The  provincials  had 
either  exhausted  their  ball,  or  they  were  determined  that  every 
wound  should  prove  mortal.  Their  muskets  were  charged 
with  old  nails  and  angular  pieces  of  iron,  and  from  most  of 
our  men  being  wounded  in  the  legs,  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
it  was  their  design,  not  wishing  to  kill  the  men,  but  to  leave 
them  as  burdens  on  us,  to  exhaust  our  provisions  and  engage 
our  attention,  as  well  as  to  intimidate  the  rest  of  the  soldiery." 
The  stir  and  business  of  the  British  forces  on  their  occu- 
pancy of  the  heights  which  they  had  so  dearly  won  may  best 
be  gathered  from  Howe's  Orderly  Book,  under  the  date  of 
the  day  following. 

"General  Howe's  Orders. 

Heights  of  Charlestown, 
June  18th,  at  nine  o'clock  morning. 

The  troops  will  encamp  as  soon  as  the  equipage  can  be  brought 
up. 

Tents  and  provisions  may  be  expected  when  the  tide  admits  of 
transporting  them  to  this  side. 

The  corps  to  take  the  duty  at  the  intrenchment  near  Charles- 
town  Neck,  alternately.  The  whole  (those  on  the  last-mentioned 
duty  excepted)  to  furnish  the  third  of  their  numbers  for  work,  with 
officers  and  non-commissioned  officers  in  proportion,  and  be  relieved 
every  four  hours. 

The  parties  for  work  to  carry  their  arms,  and  lodge  them  securely 
while  on  that  duty. 

General  Howe  expects  that  all  officers  will  exert  themselves  to 
prevent  the  men  from  straggling,  quitting  their  companies  or  pla- 
toons, and,  on  pain  of  death,  no  man  to  be  guilty  of  the  shameful 
and  infamous  practice  of  pillaging  in  the  deserted  houses. 

When  men  are  sent  for  water,  not  less  than  twelve,  with  a  non- 
commissioned officer,  to  be  sent  on  that  duty. 


THE   RECKONING.  53 

The  47th  Regiment  to  continue  at  the  post  they  now  occupy. 
The  soldiers  are  by  no  means  to  cut  down  trees,  unless  ordered. 

General  Howe  hopes  the  troops  will  in  every  instance  show  an 
attention  to  discipline  and  regularity  on  this  ground,  equal  to  the 
bravery  and  intrepidity  he,  with  the  greatest  satisfaction,  observed 
they  displayed  so  remarkably  yesterday.  He  takes  this  opportunity 
of  expressing  his  public  testimony  to  the  gallantry  and  good  con- 
duct of  the  officers  under  his  command  during  the  action,  to  which 
he  in  a  great  measure  ascribes  the  success  of  the  day.  He  con- 
siders particularly  in  this  light  the  distinguished  efforts  of  the 
Generals  Clinton  and  Pigot. 

The  corps  of  Light  Infantry  will  relieve  the  Grenadiers  at  the 
advanced  intrenchment  this  evening,  at  seven. 

When  the  5 2d  Regiment  encamps,  an  officer  and  twenty  men  of 
that  corps  will  remain  at  the  post  they  now  occupy." 

"General  Orders. 

Head-quarters,  Boston,  19th  June,  1775. 
The  Commander-in-chief  returns  his  most  grateful  thanks  to 
Major-General  Howe  for  the  extraordinary  exertion  of  his  military 
abilities  on  the  17th  instant.  He  returns  his  thanks  also  to  Major- 
General  Clinton  and  Brigadier-General  Pigot  for  the  share  they  took 
in  the  success  of  the  day,  as  well  as  to  Lieutenant-Colonels  Nesbit, 
Abercrombie,  Gunning,  and  Clarke,  Majors  Butler,  Williams,  Bruce, 
Tupper,  Spendlove,  Smelt,  and  Mitchell,  and  the  rest  of  the  offi- 
cers and  soldiers,  who,  by  remarkable  efforts  of  courage  and 
gallantry,  overcame  every  disadvantage,  and  drove  the  rebels  from 
their  redoubt  and  strongholds  on  the  heights  of  Charlestown,  and 
gained  a  complete  victory." 

"June  27th,  1775. 
The  preservation  of  the  few  houses  left  in  Charlestown  (as  much 
as  possible)  unimpaired,  being  an  important  object,  any  of  the  sol- 
diers detected  in  future  in  attempting  shamefully  to  purloin  any 
part  of  these  buildings  will  assuredly  be  punished  most  severely. 
The  General  considers  such  instances  of  devastation  and  irregular- 
ity a  disgrace  to  discipline." 

But  though  the  sword  was  lifted  against  our  fathers  by  their 
own  brethren,  and  in  a  cause  which  we  must  pronounce  to 
have  been  unrighteous  and  tyrannical,  we  feel  impelled  to  pay 


54  THE   BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]  HILL. 

a  just  tribute  to  the  bravery  and  gallantry  of  the  British  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  upon  the  field.  To  climb  boldly  and  march 
forward,  as  they  did  thrice,  and  bare  their  bosoms  to  the 
weapons  of  desperate  men,  was  a  trial  of  their  prowess  which 
allows  us  to  withhold  from  them  no  praise  or  glory  which  we 
give  to  our  patriots,  save  that  belonging  to  those  who  were 
the  champions  of  the  better  cause.  The  highest  honor  which 
we  can  bestow  upon  the  heroism  of  the  enemy,  is,  in  regret- 
ting that  the  King  and  his  ministers  found  such  devoted  ser- 
vants. 

THE  FRUITS  OF  THE  PATRIOT  STRUGGLE. 

Now,  if  it  were  to  be  affirmed  that  the  intrenching  and 
the  daring,  though  desperate,  defence  of  Breed's  Hill  was  the 
most  critical,  or,  at  least,  the  most  important,  action  of  our 
Revolutionary  War,  the  assertion  might  be  set  down  to  the 
account  of  a  rhetorical  exaltation,  to  local  partiality,  or  to  an  ill- 
proportioned  estimate  of  other  conflicts.  Rival  claimants  might 
arise  as  the  champions  of  the  fame  of  our  other  battle-fields. 
Yet,  without  a  word  or  a  figure  of  exaggeration,  the  battle  of 
June  17th  may  be  ranked  as  chief  in  importance  in  the  calen- 
dar of  our  fights.  The  whole  protracted  struggle  was  deci- 
sively influenced  through  its  seven  years  by  this,  its  initiatory 
contest.  The  battle  was  fought  by  the  provincials  in  earnest, 
with  determined  spirit,  with  proud  success,  though  not  with 
temporary  victory  ;  and  therefore  it  gave  the  impulse  of  a  good 
beginning  to  the  whole  conduct  of  the  war.  The  risks  of  the 
enterprise  were  fearful,  almost  appalling,  as  seen  by  our  wisest 
and  boldest  counsellors.  But  they  counted  the  cost  up  to  that 
critical  point  at  which  high-souled  and  resolved  men  know 
that  if  they  deliberate  and  hesitate  any  further,  they  lose 
their  heroism  in  fondling  their  discretion.  Let  us  make  a 
brief  review  of  the  accomplished  effects  of  the  battle. 

It  accomplished  what,  in  all  cases  of  strife  and  discord,  it  is 
very  needful,  yet  not  always  easy,  to  bring  fully  into  decision,  — 
it  drew  a  line  of  division,  no  longer  to  be  blurred,  between  the 


THE   FRUITS   OF  THE   PATRIOT  STRUGGLE.  55 

two  contending  parties,  and  brought  them  to  a  positive  issue. 
There  were  then  several  links  of  union  between  England  and 
her  American  provinces,  formed  by  the  various  orders,  classes, 
and  coteries,  gathered  especially  in  this  neighborhood.  Some 
of  our  most  honored  and  disinterested  countrymen,  and  some 
of  the  British  officers,  engaged  with  protracted  shrinking  and 
with  extreme  reluctance  in  the  hostilities.  We  had  among  us 
not  only  Tories  and  Republicans,  Monarchists  and  Sons  of 
Liberty,  but  timid  and  cautious  hesitants,  and  attached  friends 
to  the  restricted  exercise  of  kingly,  in  opposition  to  demo- 
cratic, authority.  There  were  moderate  and  immoderate  men 
of  both  parties,  neutral  and  lukewarm  doubters  of  no  party. 
While  reading  the  inner  history  of  the  period,  we  readily  im- 
agine the  thousand  social  ties  and  domestic  relations,  the 
civilities  of  neighborhood  and  the  common  interest  in  the  land 
across  the  water,  which  might  well  make  it  a  difficult  thing,  a 
work  requiring  time,  and  even  blood,  to  separate  the  people 
of  this  single  province  into  two  parties  distinct  at  every  point, 
so  that  they  might  face  each  other  as  enemies.  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  skirmish  at  Lexington  and  Concord,  it  is  prob- 
able that  matters  might  have  remained  quiet  a  little  time 
longer,  and  that  the  colonists  might  have  wasted  many  more 
words  of  petition  upon  the  ministry.  But  the  affair  of  the 
17th  of  June  at  once  put  a  stop  to  any  further  halting  between 
two  opinions. 

Again,  that  action  was  of  primary  importance  from  its 
nerving  influence  upon  the  patriots,  who,  unknown  to  them- 
selves, had  before  them  a  war  of  weary  protraction  and 
exhausting  drain,  partaking  largely  of  reverses  and  discour- 
agements. They  learned  this  day  to  what  they  were  equal  in 
the  confidence  that  God  was  on  their  side,  making  their  cause 
just  and  good.  That  work  of  a  summer's  night  was  worth 
its  cost  to  them.  They  lacked  discipline,  artillery,  bayonets, 
powder  and  ball,  food  ;  and,  the  greatest  want  of  all,  they  lacked 
the  delicious  draught  of  pure,  cool  water  for  their  labor-worn 
and  heat-exhausted  frames.   They  found  that  desperation  would 


56  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]    HILL. 

supply  the  place  of  discipline  ;  that  the  ttunt  end  of  a  musket, 
wielded  with  strong  arms,  might  be  as  deadly  as  the  thrust  of 
a  bayonet,  and  that  a  heavy  stone  might  level  an  assailant  as 
well  as  a  charge  of  powder.  As  for  food  and  water,  the 
hunger  they  were  compelled  to  bear  unrelieved,  and  they 
cooled  their  brows  only  by  the  thick,  heavy  drops  which 
poured  before  the  sun.  Yet  it  was  their  opening  combat,  and 
proudly  did  they  bear  away  its  laurels  even  upon  their  backs, 
which  the  failure  of  ammunition  and  reinforcements  compelled 
them  through  part  of  their  retreat  to  turn  to  the  enemy.  They 
did  show  their  backs  once  to  those  who  had  already  twice 
indulged  them  with  the  same  spectacle  ;  and,  if  they  retreated, 
it  was  not  in  abandonment  of  their  cause,  but  that  they  might 
save  their  faces  for  later  and  bolder  opportunities  of  confront- 
ing the  foe.  Their  opening  combat  decided  the  spirit  and 
the  hope  of  all  their  subsequent  campaigns.  They  had  freed 
themselves  during  the  engagement  from  all  that  human  re- 
luctance which  they  had  heretofore  felt  in  turning  deadly 
weapons  against  the  breasts  of  former  friends,  yes,  even  of 
kinsmen.  On  that  eminence,  the  first  bright  image  of  liberty 
of  a  free  native  land  kindled  the  eyes  of  those  who  were  ex- 
piring in  their  gore  ;  and  the  image  passed  between  the  living 
and  the  dying  to  seal  the  covenant,  that  the  hope  of  the  one, 
or  the  fate  of  the  other,  should  unite  them  here  or  hereafter. 

It  was  the  report  of  that  battle,  which,  transmitted  by  swift 
couriers  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  continent,  would 
everywhere  prepare  the  spirit  to  follow  it  up  with  determined 
resistance  to  every  future  act  of  aggression.  How  can  we 
exaggerate  the  relative  importance  of  this  day's  action  ?  Did 
it  not,  in  fact,  not  only  open,  but  make  the  contest,  dividing 
into  two  parties  not  only  those  determined  for  the  ministry  or 
for  enfranchisement,  but  also  all  timid,  hesitating,  reluctant 
neutrals  ?  It  was  impossible  after  this  to  avoid  taking  a  side. 
It  rendered  all  reconciliation  impossible,  till  it  should  offer 
itself  in  the  shape  of  independence.  It  echoed  the  gathering 
cry  that  brought  together  our  people  from  their  farms  and 


THE   FRUITS    OF  THE   PATRIOT  STRUGGLE.  57 

workshops,  to  learn  the  terrible  art  which  grows  more  merci- 
ful only  as  it  is  more  ferociously,  that  is,  skilfully,  pursued. 
The  day  needs  no  rhetoric  to  magnify  it  in  our  revolutionary 
annals.  When  its  sun  went  down,  the  provincials  had  parted 
with  all  fear,  hesitation,  and  reluctance.  They  found  that  it 
was  easy  to  fight.  The  awful  roar  of  the  death-dealing  en- 
ginery associated  itself  in  their  minds  with  all  their  wrongs,  and 
all  their  hopes,  and  with  the  sweet  word  of  liberty.  The  pen 
with  which  petitions  had  been  written,  they  found  to  be,  for  its 
use,  a  child's  toy.  Words  of  remonstrance  left  no  impression 
on  the  air.  There  was  but  one  resource.  From  the  village 
homes  and  farm-houses  around,  amid  the  encouraging  exhor- 
tations, as  well  as  the  tearful  prayers  of  their  families,  the 
yeomen  took  from  their  chimney-stacks  the  familiar  and  well- 
proved  weapons  of  a  life  in  the  woods,  and  felt  for  the  first 
time,  not  indeed  what  it  was  to  have  a  country,  but  what  they 
had  to  do  to  keep  it. 

Another  token  of  the  relative  importance  of  this  day's  con- 
flict was  the  effect  which  the  announcement  of  it  in  England 
produced  upon  the  ministry  and  the  people.  An  infatuated 
cabinet  had  provoked  the  war  under  the  grossest  misappre- 
hension of  the  character  and  courage  of  the  inhabitants  of 
this  province.  An  infatuated  Parliament  listened  approv- 
ingly to  speeches  ratifying  the  measures  of  that  ministry 
as  of  easy  enforcement.  The  local  information  of  our  former 
governor,  Pownall,  the  philosophy  of  Burke,  and  the  tender 
appeals  of  Lord  Chatham,  had  in  vain  pleaded  with  lords 
and  commons  that  only  conciliatory  measures  could  avail  with 
a  race  of  men,  Englishmen  themselves,  the  descendants  of 
exiles  who  had  sought  a  heritage  of  freedom  in  a  tamed  wil- 
derness. The  last  three  royal  governors  of  Massachusetts 
had  represented  the  provincials  as  under  the  control  of  a  few 
ambitious  leaders,  demagogues,  and  revolutionists,  who,  by 
exciting  speeches,  cajoled  and  flattered  the  duped  people. 
All  that  needed  to  be  done  by  Parliament  was  to  silence  these 
fustian  leaders.     The  principal  cajoling  proved  to  have  been 

8 


58  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]    HILL. 

practised  on  the  English  people,  who  had  been  told  that  one 
regiment  of  the  King's  troops  would  sweep  the  provincials  off 
the  continent.  The  battle  gave  them  a  simple  Rule  of  Three. 
If  so  many  of  his  Majesty's  soldiers  had  been  necessary  to 
reduce  the  square  feet  of  ground  on  the  peninsula  of  Charles- 
town,  how  many  would  be  needed  to  sweep  the  continent  ? 

General  Gage's  account  of  the  battle,  acknowledging  the 
loss  of  226  killed  and  828  wounded,  was  received  in  Lon- 
don, July  25th.  While  the  ministry  received  with  dismay 
this  official  intelligence,  and  kept  it  back  from  publication, 
many  private  letters  accompanying  it  in  its  transit  antici- 
pated with  exaggerations  its  humiliating  details.  These 
being  made  public,  the  ministry  gave  forth  their  own  ver- 
sion in  the  "  Gazette  "  in  as  favorable  a  tone  as  was  possible, 
from  the  despatches  of  Gage,  Howe,  and  Burgoyne.  The 
last  of  these  wrote  to  Lord  Stanley  that  "  the  day  ended 
with  glory."  General  Gage  wrote  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  the 
head  of  the  War  Department :  "  The  rebels  are  not  the  despi- 
cable rabble  too  many  suppose  them  to  be  ;  and  I  find  it  owing 
to  a  military  spirit  encouraged  among  them  for  a  few  years 
past,  joined  with  an  uncommon  degree  of  zeal  and  enthu- 
siasm, that  they  are  otherwise." 

On  the  reception  in  England  of  the  accounts  of  the  battle 
by  the  provincials,  with  their  comments  and  resolves  for  the 
future,  the  English  people  were  excited  by  varying  feelings  of 
sympathy  for  us,  or  vengeful  hate  against  us,  and  either  poured 
forth  contempt  and  complaint  against  the  ministry,  or  demanded 
of  them  more  violence.  The  revenue  which  was  promised 
to  the  exchequer  of  Great  Britain  from  the  taxation  of  the 
colonists  was  found  to  involve  enormous  charges  for  its  col- 
lection, —  in  the  cost  of  sending  regiments  of  its  own  subjects, 
and  of  foreign  mercenaries,  with  munitions  of  war,  coals,  fag- 
ots, vinegar,  porter,  hay,  vegetables,  sheep,  oxen  horses,  and 
clothing  —  a  good  proportion  of  which  fell  into  the  hands 
of  privateering  provincials  —  across  three  thousand  miles  of 
water.     In  the  words  of  the  old  saying,  "  A  great  deal  of  good 


THE  FRUITS  OF  THE  PATRIOT  STRUGGLE.     59 

money  .was  sent  after  what  was  bad."  Highlanders  were 
enlisted  with  the  promise  of  receiving  farms  here  "whose 
owners  had  been  driven  into  the  interior." 

The  provincial  account  of  the  battle,  dated  July  25th,  was 
sent  to  Arthur  Lee,  the  agent  in  London,  who  caused  it  to  be 
published.  In  September,  three  pestiferous  vessels  from  here 
arrived  at  English  ports,  with  sick  and  mutilated  officers  and 
men,  and  with  the  widows  and  children  of  the  slain,  wretched 
spectacles  and  wretched  sufferers. 

The  conduct  of  the  battle  on  the  part  of  the  British  generals 
was  the  subject  of  criticism,  censure,  and  ridicule  from  the 
authorities  and  the  people.  Ingenious  plans  were  set  forth 
by  which  the  British,  unscathed,  might  have  routed  or  en- 
trapped the  provincials,  as  if  they  had  been  so  many  lambs. 

The  despatches  which  had  been  repaired  and  transmitted 
to  General  Gage,  directing  his  future  movements,  were  accom- 
panied by  others,  recalling  him  and  committing  the  command 
to  Howe.  The  latter,  unmanned  and  dispirited,  was  to  fare 
no  better  than  did  his  predecessor.  Remonstrances,  petitions, 
and  public  meetings  in  England  in  opposition  to  the  war,  the 
reluctance  of  soldiers  to  enlist,  the  high  bounties  paid,  and 
the  increasing  number  of  the  avowed  and  secret  friends  of 
the  Americans,  were  other  effects  of  our  opening  battle. 

The  British  strongly  fortified  both  Bunker's  and  Breed's 
Hills,  posting  their  advanced  guards  upon  the  Neck.  Thus 
they  had  two  peninsulas  and  a  little  more  room,  offering 
them  one  great  advantage,  but  no  more.  The  cool  heights  of 
Charlestown  were  a  refuge  in  the  hot  weather  from  the  deadly 
atmosphere  of  Boston,  which  was  one  vast  hospital.  But  the 
enemy  had  double  labor  and  anxiety  in  defending  their  works 
against  an  insulting,  vexatious,  and  ever-watchful  foe  quite 
near  to  them,  and  in  the  ensuing  winter  were  exposed  to 
severe  sufferings  from  the  intense  cold  and  driving  snow- 
storms, with  insufficient  shelter  and  no  fuel.  Nor  did  the 
possession  of  Charlestown  at  all  increase  their  facilities  for 
obtaining  fresh    provisions,   in   which    the   interior   country 


60  THE  BATTLE   OF  BUNKER'S   [BREED'S]   HILL. 

abounded.  They  had  had  little  of  the  kind  since  the  affair 
at  Lexington.  Handbills  were  printed  at  Cambridge,  and 
sent  floating  on  the  wind  across  the  lines  into  the  British  camp, 
taunting  them  with  the  contrast  in  their  bills  of  fare. 
Thus :  — 


Prospect  Hill. 

i.  Seven  dollars  a  month. 

2.  Fresh  provisions,and  in  plenty. 

3.  Health. 

4.  Freedom,  ease,  affluence,  and 

a  good  farm. 


Bunker's  Hill. 

i.  Threepence  a  day. 

2.  Rotten  salt  pork. 

3.  The  scurvy. 

4.  Slavery,  beggary,  and  want. 


A  British  officer,  writing  from  Boston,  July  25,  to  a  friend 
in  London,  says,  they  felt  themselves  worse  off  than  the  rebels, 
like  a  few  children  in  a  large  crowd,  insulted  and  menaced, 
and  dreading  an  attack  when  the  long  nights  came.  He 
adds  :  "  They  know  our  situation  as  well  as  we  do  ourselves, 
from  the  villains  that  are  left  in  town,  who  acquaint  them  with 
all  our  proceedings,  making  signals  by  night  with  gunpowder, 
and  at  day  out  of  the  church  steeples.  About  three  weeks 
ago,  three  fellows  were  taken  out  of  one  of  the  latter  [the 
West  Church],  who  confessed  that  they  had  been  so  employed 
for  seven  days.  Another  was  caught  last  week  swimming 
over  to  the  rebels  with  one  of  their  general's  passes  in  his 
pocket.  He  will  be  hanged  in  a  day  or  two."  This  officer 
and  his  friends  would  have  had  many  more  such  tricks  to 
report  had  their  eyes  been  sharper. 

It  would  be  of  interest,  were  this  the  place  for  it,  to  sketch 
in  some  detail  the  experiences  and  the  anxieties  of  both 
armies  during  the  heats  of  the  summer,  the  mellowness  of  the 
autumn,  and  the  severities  of  the  winter  that  followed  upon  the 
collision  between  them  that  has  just  been  reviewed.  As  one 
in  that  series  of  miscalculations  and  blunders  which  charac- 
terized the  whole  conduct  of  the  military  leaders  here,  as  of 
the  parliamentary  leaders  in  England,  the  successor  of  Gage 
failed  to  possess  himself  of  the  heights  on  the  other  side  of 


THE   FRUITS   OF  THE   PATRIOT  STRUGGLE.  6l 

Boston  before  Washington  occupied  them,  and  held  the  Brit- 
ish army  under  his  guns.  It  was  the  middle  of  March.  Our 
great  chief  was  willing  to  allow  General  Howe  a  few  days  to 
pack  up  and  take  his  fleet  to  other  waters,  because  any  moles- 
tation of  him  would  have  involved  injury  to  the  people  of  Bos- 
ton and  their  property. 

It  is  pleasant  to  close  this  rehearsal  of  a  strife,  amid  scenes 
now  smiling  in  all  the  loveliness  and  prosperity  of  a  century  of 
peace,  by  reference  to  a  symbol  more  expressive  even  than  that 
of  a  sword  beaten  into  a  ploughshare.  When  the  first  beams 
of  the  morning  exposed  to  the  view  of  the  enemy  the  work 
which  Colonel  Prescott  had  been  doing  in  the  night,  the  sloop- 
of-vvar  "  Falcon,"  in  command  of  Captain  Linzee,  lying  in  the 
river,  poured  forth  with  her  consorts  the  rattling  shot  in  bom- 
barding it.  The  grandson  of  the  American  commander,  the 
late  William  Hickling  Prescott,  the  accomplished  and  distin- 
guished historian,  and  a  man  honored  and  endeared  to  all  who 
knew  him,  married  the  granddaughter  of  Captain  Linzee. 
For  many  years  the  swords  of  these  two  officers,  crossed 
peacefully,  ornamented  one  of  the  friezes  of  the  library  of  the 
historian.  And  now,  with  an  appropriate  inscription  for  the 
legacy,  they  grace  an  apartment  of  the  library  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society. 


62  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKER'S  [BREED'S]   HILL. 


NOTE. 

The  writer  of  the  preceding  pages  indulges  here  in  some  personal 
references,  slight  as  they  concern  himself,  more  important  as  they 
relate  to  others. 

For  a  period  of  thirty  consecutive  years,  1840-1869,  he,  being 
then  a  resident  of  Charlestown,  stood  each  year,  on  the  morning 
and  evening  of  the  anniversary  of  the  battle,  on  the  heights  which 
it  made  memorable,  walked  the  grounds  and  reviewed  the  surround- 
ings of  the  scene.  On  the  first  of  those  years,  —  sixty-five  years 
having  elapsed  since  the  conflict,  —  and  for  a  few  that  followed,  the 
historic  scene  in  many  of  its  interesting  features  was  comparatively 
unchanged.  On  the  top  and  skirts  of  Bunker's  Hill  there  were  but 
few  dwellings  amid  its  open  pasture-grounds,  and  on  the  northern 
and  western  parts  of  it  the  ridges  and  trenches,  the  lines  and  the 
bastions  of  the  elaborate  fortifications  made  by  the  British  while 
they  held  it,  were  easily  traceable.  Moulton's  Hill,  at  the  entrance 
upon  the  bridge  to  Chelsea,  where  the  regulars  landed  and  lunched, 
was  then  at  its  full  elevation,  and  brick-kilns,  tan-yards,  and  sloughy 
ground  occupied  most  of  the  space  between  it  and  the  slope  of 
Breed's  Hill.  The  skirts  of  both  Bunker's  and  Breed's  Hill  down 
to  the  shore  of  the  Mystic,  were,  for  the  most  part,  in  their  earlier 
condition,  enabling  one  to  trace  the  relation  of  the  simple  defences 
made  by  the  rail-fence,  and  the  breastwork  and  redoubt.  There 
were  many  points  on  Breed's  Hill  from  which  a  view  was  offered  of 
Copp's  Hill,  and  of  the  route  of  our  forces  from  Cambridge.-  The 
slopes  of  Breed's  Hill,  on  all  the  four  sides,  which  have  since  been 
wholly  removed  for  streets  and  dwellings,  were  then  as  nature  left 
them.  The  Fitchburg,  Boston  and  Maine,  and  Eastern  Railroads, 
had  not  then  spanned  the  river  with  their  bridges.  When  strangers 
from  abroad,  and  visitors,  asked  the  writer's  company  in  their  out- 
look upon  the  scene,  it  had  in  large  measure  a  self-explanatory 
aspect.  He  watched  diligently  the  spades  and  picks  of  the  laborers 
as  they  removed  the  earth  on  the  sides  of  the  hill.  The  depth  of  the 
levelling  is  indicated  now  by  the  height  of  the  banks  bordering  the 
remnant  that  makes  the  site  of  the  monument.  Many  cannon- 
balls,  the  missiles  of  the  British  ships  and  battery,  came  to  light, 
of  which  the  writer  picked  up  two. 

While  in  1840,  and  for  a  short  time  afterwards,  the  natural  feat- 


NOTE.  63 

ures  of  the  scene  and  its  surroundings  were  so  little  changed,  there 
were  many  persons  living  in  the  town  and  its  neighborhood  who 
had  personal  knowledge  and  vivid  remembrances  of  things  seen 
and  heard  on   the  memorable  day  which  laid  the  town  in  ashes. 
Men   and  women,  who  were  not  quite  fourscore  years  of  age,  as 
well  as  those  who  were  older,  who  had  been  born  and  brought  up 
in  the  town,  and  had,  as  children,  been  removed  from  it  by  their 
parents  on  the  eve  of  the  battle,  to  watch  it  from  the  neighboring 
hill-tops,  and  those  who  had  even  done  some  service  on  the  day, 
were  still  lingering  here  or  in  the  adjoining  towns.     Of  what  they 
had  themselves  seen  and  known  they  were  interesting  and  trust- 
worthy relators.     They  were  the  less  so  as  reporters  of  what  they 
had  heard  from  others.     Confusion  of  memory  and  imagination,  of 
course,  would  in  some  instances  qualify  the  reliance  to  be  given  to 
their  narrations.     The  writer  had  occasion  to  make  allowance  for 
that  peculiar  characteristic  of  aged  and  communicative  persons,  by 
which,  when  they  are  consulted  as  oracles  about  wonders  and  catas- 
trophes, they  are  apt  to  substitute  the  remembrances,  experiences, 
and  narratives  of  others  for  their  own.     Enough  there  were,  how- 
ever, of  surviving  actors,  witnesses,  and  sharers  in  the  excitements 
and  distresses  of  that  day,  to  give  efficient  help  to  one  who  had  its 
scenes  and  their  surroundings  before  him,  and  had  diligently  read 
its  printed  and  manuscript  memorials,  with  the  effort  to  reproduce 
its  realities.     There  was  a  pathos  in  the  relations  of  some  of  these 
aged  people,  which  unerringly  distinguished  between  the  impres 
sions  written  deep  in  the  distresses  of  memory,  and  those  caught 
by  the  imagination  from  the  tales  of  others.     Those  who  had  seen 
the  happy  homes  of  their  childhood,  with  their  little  treasures,  melt 
away  in  the  conflagration  ;  those  who  had  heard  the  roar  of  the  mus- 
ketry and  cannon,  and  had  looked  upon  the  wounded  borne  off  to 
some  chance  shelter ;  those  who  were  the  first  to  return  impov- 
erished and  homeless  to   the  scene  of  ruin,  marked  by  tottering 
chimney-stacks,  cellars  of  rubbish,  and  charred  well-sweeps,  to  re- 
claim at  least  their  spot  of  redeemed  soil,  —  might  be  trusted  by  one 
who  listened  to  them  as  speaking  the  truth. 

The  grandparents  of  Ex-Mayors  Timothy  Thompson  Sawyer  and 
Richard  Frothingham — who  are  cousins — left  their  home  in 
Charlestown  on  the  evening  of  the  19th  of  April,  and  crossed  the 
river  into  Maiden,  thence  to  look  upon  the  wreck  of  so  much  that 
was  dear  to  them.  On  their  return  to  the  scene  of  ruins,  their  son, 
Timothy  Thompson,  was  the  first  male  child  born  on  the  spot,  Feb. 


64  THE  BATTLE   OF   BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]    HILL. 

24,  1777.  His  mother  lived  to  enjoy  the  visit  of  Lafayette,  the 
laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  Monument,  and  the  delivery  of 
Webster's  oration,  at  its  completion,  and  died  in  1848,  in  her  ninety- 
third  year.  The  memory  of  the  venerable  lady  held  what  was  not 
to  be  found  in  books.  The  newspapers  and  posters  of  the  time 
were  filled  with  advertisements  of  things  lost  or  stolen.  In  many 
cases  members  of  scattered  families  were,  for  some  time,  ignorant 
of  each  other's  whereabouts. 

The  many  ancient  tombs  in  the  burial-hill,  with  their  armorial 
bearings  and  their  extinct  names,  show  that  a  number  of  families, 
once  resident  with  ample  means  in  the  town,  have  lost  their  places 
on  the  list  of  inhabitants,  and  left  no  representatives.  Such  of 
them  as  were  living  at  the  time,  driven  from  their  homes  and  re- 
duced to  want,  never  returned  again. 

In  1 84 1,  the  writer  was  invited  by  a  military  company  to  prepare 
and  deliver  an  "  oration,"  for  a  celebration,  in  connection  with  the 
civil  authorities  of  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  for  that  year.  In 
undertaking  the  task,  he  found  to  his  surprise  that  there  was  not 
to  be  had  in  print  nor  in  manuscript  any  extended,  authentic,  and 
adequate  production  that  might  be  called  a  History  of  the  Battle, 
written  within  a  half  century  after  it,  by  any  actor  or  spectator, 
giving  a  connected  account  of  the  preparation,  the  conduct  and 
events  in  detail  which  it  involved.  Returns,  reports,  and  results 
communicated  to  the  authorities  of  the  time,  for  specific  purposes, 
fragmentary  sketches,  extracts  from  journals,  letters,  and  news- 
papers, there  were  in  abundance,  but  no  narrative  reaching  the 
standard  of  an  historical  monograph.  Perhaps  an  exception  should 
be  made  to  the  sweep  of  this  statement,  in  a  recognition  of  the 
earnest  efforts  of  the  late  Colonel  Samuel  Swett,  of  Boston,  who  in 
18 18  contributed  to  an  edition  of  Humphrey's  "  Life  of  General  Put- 
nam," rt  An  Historical  and  Topographical  Sketch  of  Bunker  Hill 
Battle."  This  was  prepared  while  the  contention  was  waging 
fiercely  among  the  champions  of  the  different  names  claimed  for 
the  chief  or  the  divided  honors  of  the  command  on  the  17th  of  June. 
Colonel  Swett  twice  enlarged  his  sketch,  and  published  it  in  a 
pamphlet,  with  much  new  and  valuable  matter  gathered  by  his  in- 
quiries from  his  military  friends  and  many  survivors  of  the  field. 
His  laborious  and  zealous  investigations  were  most  opportunely 
pursued ;  and  their  results  in  their  last  form  were  made  public  in 
1826  and  1827,  in  connection  with  the  then  recent  ceremonies  at 
the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  monument.     He  too,  however, 


NOTE. 


™  r \  -J  T  ,7^  *"  "ColoneI  Presc°"  'eel  the  way  » 
f.om  Cambridge,  he  adds,  "General  Putnam  having  the  principal 
direct.cn  and  superintendence  of  the  expedition."  °  Now^  at  'he 
onginal  w.tnesses  and  aotors  are  all  departed,  each  sub  equ  n 
investigator  must  make  the  best  use  he  can  of  aU  prim  "'and 
secondary  authorities.  Mr.  Richard  Frothingham,  born  and  Uvri at 
under  the  shadow  of  the  monument,  in  his  admirable  -StoH 
the  S.ege  of  Boston,"  first  published  in  ,849,  and  since  revised  has 
given  a  most  elaborate  and  faithful  history  of  the  battle 

The  present  writer  had  been  privileged  for  some  years  by  the 
acquaintance  and  kindly  regards  of  the  late  Judge  William  Prescot  ' 
and  of  his  son  the  late  eminent  historian,  Wilham  Hick  ing  Pre- 
co t  -son  and  grandson  of  Colonel  Prescott.  On  learning  of 
exorlt   17         the  WrUer  Was  e'Wd,  both  these  honored  men 

Sot      ,  lh°  venerable  Judge  was  then  in  his  seventy-ninth  year 

Those  who  remember  him,  while  recalling  the  grace  and  dignity 

he  punty  and  elevation  of  his  character,  will  als0  be  reminded  2 

he  exquis,te  modesty  and  retiring  reserve  which  were  so  observable 

earTsrst  y^V"  *"*  *"  ^  publications  from  th 
year  .8.8,  in  which  different  writers  had  appeared  as  champions  or 
advocates  of  the  claims  of  the  several  officers  to  the  command  0 
the  detachment  sent  to  Charlestown  on  the  night  before  and  on  the 
day  of  the  battle.  Of  course  his  filial  feelings  and  his  sense  of 
just.ce  were  aggrieved  by  the  dispute  and  pleas  which  deprived  hb 
honored  and  patriotic  father  of  his  rightful  laurels.  But  he  enter  d 
no  remonstrance;  he  neither  wrote  nor  publicly  spoke  on  the  s Me 
vhtch  he  well  knew  to  be  that  of  simple  truth.  He  was  cont  nUn 
the  belie    that  the  time  would  come,  with  the  investigation,  and  the 

of  hi  if"  tha,t.WOUW  S6t  the  faC,S  °f  the  ca-  «  «le  page 

of  his ory.     He  was  lumself  a  youth  in  his  thirteenth  year  on  bis 

iteTtwe  r w  Peprrdl  on  the  day  °f  the  battie> and  «•  «-£ 

hved  twenty  years  after  ,t.  With  frank  and  assured  confidence  he 
communicated  to  the  writer  that  his  father  always  regarded  and 
spoke  of  himself  as  in  full  command  at  the  battle,  as  having 
received  and  fulfilled  the  order  of  Genera.  Ward  to  intrench  an! 
defend  he  works,  as  having  conducted  the  movements  of  the  day 
and  made  return  of  its  issue  at  head-quarters. 

With  such  opportunities  and  helps,  the  "oration  "  asked  for  was 
prepared,  delivered,  and  then  published.     The  historical  details  in 


9 


66  THE    BATTLE  OF   BUNKER'S  [BREED'S]    HILL. 

it,  with  original  documents,  and  an  account  of  the  monument,  were 
afterwards  brought  together  by  the  writer  into  a  small  volume, 
published  anonymously  by  Mr.  C.  P.  Emmons,  of  Charlestown,  in 
1843.  Several  thousand  copies  of  this  publication  have  been 
issued,  and  it  is  now  out  of  print.  In  a  number  of  the  "  New  York 
Historical  Magazine  "  for  June,  1868,  devoted  to  the  battle,  this  pub- 
lication is  referred  to  and  quoted  as  "  Emmons's  Sketches."  The 
matter  of  the  oration  and  of  the  book  is  substantially  given  in  the 
preceding  pages. 

Sincerely  and  thoroughly  convinced  as  the  writer  became,  through 
his  investigations,  that  Colonel  Prescott  was  the  trusted  and  the 
responsible  leader  and  commander  in  the  action  at  Charlestown, 
he  assigned  to  him  all  the  honors  which  belonged  to  him  as  such, 
without  needing  to  reduce  in  any  respect  the  laurels  of  his  asso- 
ciates, except  in  not  subordinating  him,  as  others  had  done  to  them. 
It  is  believed  that  for  the  first  time  the  full  truth  was  then  set 
forth  in  connection  with  historic  details.  One  recognition  especi- 
ally rewarded  the  writer.  He  therefore  ventures  to  put  in  print  a 
letter  which  he  received  from  Judge  Prescott,  acknowledging  the 
gift  of  a  copy  of  his  "  Oration."  He  hardly  need  apologize  for  not 
mutilating  it,  by  suppressing  the  personal  compliments  which  it  con- 
tains.    The  letter  was  written  from  the  Judge's  summer  residence. 

"Nahant,  July  19th,  1841. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  heartily  thank  you  for  the  copy  of  the  excellent 
and  eloquent  oration  which  you  had  the  goodness  to  send  me.  It  is  by 
far  the  most  intelligible  and  correct  account  I  have  seen  of  that  rather 
confused  battle.  I  beg  you  to  believe  we  are  not  unmindful  of  the  very 
kind  and  flattering  terms  in  which  you  have  spoken  of  my  father,  not 
forgetting  his  descendants.  I  have  always  thought  —  indeed  known 
—  that  the  accounts  commonly  given  of  that  action  were  incorrect,  at 
least,  and  you  may  be  assured  it  afforded  me  no  little  pleasure  to  find 
that  an  orator  selected  to  commemorate  the  anniversary  in  a  town  whose 
inhabitants  were  witnesses  to  the  battle,  was  able,  and  had  the  independ- 
ence at  this  late  day,  upon  a  careful  examination  of  facts,  to  do  justice 
to  Colonel  Prescott  in  apportioning  the  honors  of  the  battle-field  among 
the  heroes  of  the  day.  This  oration,  though  but  a  pamphlet  in  form,  will, 
I  doubt  not,  lead  the  way  to  more  correct  views  on  the  subject.  The 
loss  of  the  record  of  the  appointment  to  the  command,  the  great  popular- 
ity of  some  names,  and  the  efforts  of  friends,  doubtless  contributed  to 
making  and  keeping  alive  the  erroneous  impressions  that  have  more 
or  less  prevailed.  No  friend  of  Colonel  Prescott  ever  wrote  a  line,  or 
took  an  affidavit  or  declaration  on  the  subject,  to  my  knowledge.     General 


NOTE. 


67 


Dearborn's  statement  was  wholly  unknown  to  me  till  I  saw  it  in  print, 
and  then  I  much  regretted  its  appearance.  It  is  a  delicate  and  difficult 
task,  as  you  observe,  to  distribute  the  honors  of  a  battle  among  the  leaders  ; 
and  it  is  more  especially  so  when  the  rank  of  officers  is  unsettled,  orders 
are  wanting,  and  the  action  somewhat  confused.  But  the  principle  you 
have  adopted,  to  leave  it  to  be  determined  by  the  parts  acted  by  the 
different  competitors,  one  would  think,  could  not  be  complained  of. 

I  am  particularly  pleased  with  your  just  remarks  on  the  effects  of  the 
battle.  They  ought  not  to  be  overlooked  or  forgotten.  The  Americans 
lost  the  field,  it  is  true ;  but  they  won  a  great  moral  victory,  which  was 
felt  in  every  battle  to  the  end  of  the  war.  It  made  the  brave  Howe  a 
cautious,  if  not  timid,  commander. 
I  am,  my  dear  Sir, 

Ever  respectfully  and  very  faithfully  yours, 

William  Prescott." 

That  the  Judge  should  have  shared  with  his  father  thirty-three 
years  of  their  joint  lives,  and  not  have  the  fullest  means  of  knowing, 
in  filial  confidence,  the  place  which  he  had  filled  and  the  service 
he  had  performed  on  the  memorable  day,  is,  of  course,  inconceiv- 
able. The  more  rare  and  impressive  are  the  modesty  and  the  self- 
respecting  dignity  which  he  manifested,  when  pens  and  tongues 
were  so  busy  and  so  emphatic  in  the  championship  of  other  names 
as  leaders  and  commanders,  in  not  entering  into  the  controversy 
in  his  father's  advocacy.  The  writer  was  also  assured  by  Judge 
Prescott  —  indeed  he  has  it  in  writing  from  his  own  pen  —  that 
Colonel  John  Trumbull,  the  painter,  in  1786,  of  the  fancy  piece  of 
the  "  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,"  in  which  Putnam  appears  as  the  com- 
mander of  the  redoubt,  at  Judge  Prescott's  dinner-table,  expressed 
his  sincere  regret  at  the  error  he  had  committed,  and  his  desire 
and  purpose  to  rectify  it. 

It  was  not  through  any  set  purpose  of  depreciating  the  rightful 
claims  of  one,  or  of  exaggerating  those  of  another,  in  the  discharge 
of  honorable  and  responsible  services,  nor  with  any  object  of  con- 
founding the  truth  of  history,  that  such  divergences  of  statement 
and  displacement  of  official  services  had  come  into  the  rehearsal  of 
the  events  of  the  day.  The  confusion  of  the  whole  action,  from  its 
start  to  its  close  ;  the  traversing  of  the  field  by  some,  and  the  sta- 
tionary places  of  others  ;  the  relative  importance  assigned  to  vari- 
ous positions  and  movements  on  it ;  the  different  reports  which 
different  pairs  of  eyes  made  to  different  observers ;  and  the  conclu- 
sion drawn  by  individuals  that  the  highest  military  rank  carried 
with  it  the  right  of  command,  —  these,  and  various  other  obvious 


68  THE   BATTLE   OE    BUNKER'S    [BREED'S]    HILL. 

suggestions,  will  go  far  to  explain  the  facts  we  have  recognized  in 
the  championship  of  one  or  another  of  our  officers.  As  a  conse- 
quence, however,  Colonel  Prescott  had  been,  to  say  the  least,  de- 
preciated on  the  canvas  and  on  the  pages  of  many  narratives. 

Even  in  the  local  territorial  awards  recognized  in  the  distribution 
of  memorials  in  the  town  of  Charlestown,  this  relative  neglect, 
though  never  intended,  had  a  significant  manifestation.  Up  to 
1857,  Charlestown  had  four  conspicuous  public  grammar-school 
edifices,  and  four  contiguous  streets,  bearing  with  admirable  pro- 
priety the  names,  respectively,  of  Winthrop,  Harvard,  Warren,  and 
Bunker  Hill.  Winthrop,  as  first  resident  governor  of  the  Colony, 
with  the  charter,  had  come  to  Charlestown  on  another  17th  of  June, 
1630,  and  began  its  settlement.  Harvard,  a  revered  minister  of  the 
town,  and  the  founder  of  the  college,  had  died,  and  was  buried 
here.  Warren  had  fallen  on  the  Hill,  and  received  all  the  honors  of 
the  patriot.  Bunker  Hill  Street  crossed  over  the  brow  of  that  sum- 
mit, and  the  school-house,  so  named,  was  at  its  base.  There  was 
also  a  street  bearing  the  name  of  Putnam.  A  short  side-street  had 
the  name  of  Prescott. 

When,  in  1857,  the  increase  of  the  population  made  another  and 
a  very  large  school-edifice  necessary,  the  writer,  being  a  member  of 
the  school  committee  of  Charlestown,  then  become  a  city,  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity  to  urge  the  recognition  of  the  name  of 
"  Prescott."  He  succeeded  in  his  object,  and  was  privileged  by  an 
appointment  to  deliver  the  address  inaugurating  the  spacious  build- 
ing, Dec.  15,  1857. 

Of  course,  the  distinguished  historian,  then  living  in  Boston,  was 
asked  to  give  his  personal  presence  on  an  occasion  meant  to  do 
honor  to  a  name  borne  through  three  generations,  by  soldier,  judge, 
and  scholar.  The  writer  was  well  aware  of  that  shrinking  diffi- 
dence of  his  which  had  in  no  case  ever  yielded  to  the  many  attempts, 
made  alike  in  America  and  in  Europe,  to  draw  from  him,  in  answer 
to  compliments,  a  speech  either  at  the  dinner-table  or  on  the  plat- 
form. He  was  not  surprised,  therefore,  in  receiving,  in  answer  to 
the  invitation,  a  note,  from  which  the  following  is  an  extract :  "  You 
know  my  infirmity  in  the  way  of  public  speaking.  To  talk  frankly 
with  you,  I  should  not  be  satisfied  to  be  present  on  that  occasion,  so 
complimentary  to  myself,  and  sit  like  a  dumb  dog,  as  if  I  were  not 
sensible  of  the  distinguished  honor  conferred  on  me.  Yet,  as  I  have 
got  on  so  far  [sixty-one  years]  without  opening  my  lips  in  public, 
I  feel  that  it  is  now  too  late  to  begin." 


NOTE.  6p 

Mr.  Prescott,  however,  yielded  his  objections,  on  the  assurance  of 
immunity  for  his  "  infirmity,"  —  a  rare  one  for  Americans.  The 
mayor  of  the  city,  — the  Hon.  T.  T.  Sawyer,  — who  received  him 
the  Honorable  George  S.  Boutwell,  Secretary  of  the  Massachusetts 
Board  of  Education,  Mayor  Rice  of  Boston,  and  other  guests  of  the 
occasion  with  generous  hospitality,  in  his  felicitous  official  address, 
said :  "  It  is  a  common  custom  to  give  to  public  buildings  names 
which  shall  express  some  idea  of  goodness,  of  usefulness,  or  of  honor, 
or  which  shall  connect  the  memory  of  some  good  or  great  man,  or 
thing,  with  the  edifice,  and  keep  fresh  in  the  mind  the  lesson  which 
the  name  may  convey.  To  this  building  we  have  attached  the 
name  of  «  Prescott.'  It  will  be  suggestive  of  manliness,  of  faith 
fulness,  and  of  learning.  It  has  character  and  accomplishment  to 
recommend  it ;  tried  merit,  rather  than  ephemeral  greatness,  for  the 
basis  on  which  it  rests  ;  and  we  have  confidently  adopted  it  for  its 
appropriateness  and  value.  We  are  on  the  soil  of  Bunker  Hill 
[near  the  site  of  the  « Rail  Fence '],  and  we  are  in  the  presence  of 
one  of  Massachusetts'  noblest  sons ;  and  if  we  may  appropriate  the 
influence  of  both,  and  there  is  any  value  in  a  name,  we  can  commit 
no  error  in  adopting  that  of  '  Prescott.'  " 

^  In  the  writer's  dedicatory  address,  after  an  allusion  to  the  histo- 
rian's labors  and  fame,  in  his  presence,  he  added  :  "  If  you  were  not 
here,  I  should  say  more.     I  must  also  respect  the  contract  on  which 
you  come,  — that  the  reserve  which,  in  spite  of  your  busy  skill  with 
your  pen,  has  kept  your  lips  closed  upon  all  public  occasions  shall 
not  be  rudely  broken  in  upon  here  by  the  necessity  of  a  speech. 
Your  presence  in  silence  is  a  speech  to  us.     I  know  you  will  not 
esteem  it  among  the  least  of  the  encomiums  lavished  upon  you  by 
royal  courts,  elect  academies,  and  the  great  Republic  of  Letters, 
that  a  school  in  which  thousands  are  to  be  trained  in  wisdom  bears 
your  name,  and  that  of  your  father,  mother,  and  grandfather." 
Mr.  Prescott  rose  and  said,  "There  is  no  greater  honor." 
On  the  occasion  of  this  visit,  the  grandson  of  the  Commander  on 
June  17  th  was  taken  to  see  the  statue  of  General  Warren,  on  the 
Hill.     He  may  have  thought  that  a  companion  statue  would  find  a 
rightful  position  there. 


Cambridge :   Press  of  John  Wilson  &  Son. 


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=» 


HIM     O 


-IS 


& 


«M^>_J^- 


LD  21-100m-12,'43  (8796s) 

3T~ 


Pamphlet 
Binder 

Gaylord  Bros..  Inc. 
Stockton,  Calif. 

T.M.  Reg.  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


YC  50378 


M223918 


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